The Lightning Shinobi
by LightningSword5
Summary: Who's this guy? He just comes on in to town and- wait, he's WHO's son! This oughta be interesting.
1. Chapter 1

LightningSword5: New Fanfiction, possibly a series. Leave a review if yu like the first chappie!

The Lightning Shinobi Chapter 1

"_This will finish it!" The missing nin known as Sasuke Uchiha exclaimed. "My last jutsu!"_

_He rose his hand above his head as the thunderclouds hovering over him swirled in a tornado of lightning._

"_Begone..." he began._

"_With the thunderclap!" Another voice broke in, and the possessor of his eldest brother's Mangeky Sharingan was, for once, startled. He looked to his opponent, a shinobi who seemed to be as invincible as they could come, was in a similar stance to his own. An enormous dragon of lightning surrounded his open palm before his own lightning creature could surface._

"_What... what are you?!" the Uchiha shouted to his foe, his eyes widening further when he was the all-to familiar flash of red come from his eyes-_

_He had the Sharingan._

"_I am the one..." the shinobi shouted, bringing his palm down in a wide arc. "Who will bring you back to Konoha!" _

_The dragon roared before dropping at a speed beyond reality as it crashed against Sasuke, his mind reeling and his mouth open in a silent scream._

'_I invented Kirin,' he thought to himself. 'Nobody else knows it! How does this guy-'_

_And then his scream could be heard from miles around._

3-3-3-3-3

I walked through the hidden leaf forest, looking around apprehensively. I'd already triggered two traps now, and I didn't want to further endanger myself by falling into a pit of active paper bombs. The kunai that had slashed my left cheek was bad enough, thank you.

What was worse than that was that the kunai had been dipped in some sort of poison. If I couldn't reach Konohagakure quickly, I could very easily be killed by time itself.

I walked slowly, my ears listening for all sounds, my eyes scanning every slight movement.

Then-

"CHEEEYAA!" A voice screamed, seemingly from out of nowhere, and I leapt backwards. A pink-haired female fell from the sky, her hand flaming blue with chakra, as her fist slammed into the ground where I'd just been stepping.

The ground broke open under the force of her blow, and I propelled myself as high into the air as I could to avoid harming myself.

I couldn't believe my eyes- there was a crater, at least three meters around and two meters deep where the girl had punched, and multiple paper bombs exploded in that very area. One more step, and I'd have been extra crispy. This abnormally powerful girl had saved my life.

"My thanks," I said as I landed next to the girl, who eyed me strangely.

"For what?"

"For saving me," I stated simply, shrugging. "Even if your methods were a little draconic."

"Draconic, huh?" she asked me, grinning at me with narrowed eyes and a vein bulging on her MONSTROUS forehead- okay, that's a little harsh. Her forehead was big, so what?

"Well, you did almost kill me in saving me," I pointed out with a shrug.

"You like shrugging, huh?" she asked me.

"Not really," I said with a shrug.

"So..." she whispered before grabbing me and driving me down into the dirt with a punch that had me seeing stars.

"Who are you?!" she demanded, one foot resting on my stomach and putting uncomfortable pressure on it as my head slowly cleared. "And what do you want with Konoha?!"

I looked at her head to see that holding back her hair was a leaf headband.

"Is this how your village treats visitors?" I asked, pushing her foot off of me and crawling away with as much speed and dignity as possible. "Because if it is, I'll go somewhere else!"

"Answer me!" she shouted as her foot stomped onto my back, forcing me into the ground once more and eliciting a shout from my throat. "You have no headband, you have nobody with you, and you're walking around like you think somebody's going to kill you! What are you up too!"

"Choking!" I shouted as my throat tried to get some air in. "Not breathing!"

She loosened her stomp on my back, allowing me to breathe easier, to which I wheezed in breath after painful breath.

"I just- wheeze- want to- wheeze- find- wheeze- a home!" I rasped out. "A-AND TO LIVE!"

She removed her foot from my back entirely, rolling me onto my back and wiping a tear off my cheek as she studied me.

"This wound," she muttered. "It's poisoned. Darn it, sensei, the trap caught somebody it shouldn't have..."

Her hand sparked with blue chakra after she performed a hand sign, and I flinched away from it. She shushed me and slowly lowered her glowing hand to my left cheek- and left soothing warmth there. A purplish liquid flowed onto her gloved hand, along with a small amount of blood.

"There," she whispered. "It'll scar, but other than that you'll live."

She reminded me of my mother with her kindness- my dead mother.

"Thank you again," I whispered back. "It's not often my life is saved twice in one da-"

"What's going on here?!" an enraged voice boomed. The pinkette jumped up, looking over to the source with fear.

"N-nothing lady Tsunade!" she claimed with a stutter.

"Oh, nothing?" the famed fifth hokage asked as she walked over. "We're in the middle of a training exercise and I find you with your face an inch away from the lips of an unidentified ninja?!"

Oh. That's where the problem was.

"I'm sorry," I muttered as I stood up and turned around. "I'll leave."

"Halt!" the hokage yelled at me, making me stop mid-step. "Turn and face me."

I did as I was ordered, sulkily walking up to the woman, who stared at me with sternness I'd never once encountered.

"What village are you from, stranger?" she demanded.

"I-I don't know."

"Clan?"

"... A dead one."

"What can you tell me about yourself?!" she screamed, grabbing me by the neck of my jumpsuit. I looked up into her eyes as tears welled up in my own.

"I-I want a home," I said brokenly, averting my gaze from her eyes in order to studt the ground.

Stunned, she looked to the young lady who'd she'd been training, who looked just as dumbstruck as she.

Suddenly, two strong arms enwrapped me, the hold on my jumpsuit no longer present as the smell of sake and woman's body wash met my nose. Was- Was the fifth hokage hugging me?

"You're so much like my younger brother," she told me.

"U-Um," I said as her warmth flowed into me. "I..."

Here I was, a fifteen-year-old boy, having no parents, nobody to trust, let alone friends, and nothing going for me but the strength of my arms and mind, being embraced by the hokage of all people.

She released me, giving me a tender smile and a tussle to my hair.

"Sakura!" she shouted, and the pink-haired girl jumped up again, snapping to attention. "Give this child a tour of the village and find for him a temporary home!" she commanded. "If all else fails, direct him to my mansion and have him sleep with me!"

"H-Hai, Tsunade-Sama!" Sakura agreed readily. "And afterwards?"

"You've trained enough. Go home," the woman told her before turning to return to her home.

"Okay," Sakura said, taking my hand in her own. "Come with me, stranger."

"H-Hai."

"Don't try anything funny, you hear me?!"

"Hai!"

"Okay then. This is the training field," she told me as we walked through an open green field with a stone monument over in one corner. "It's, well, it's a field that we ninja train in."

"Okay," I said, nodding slowly. Easy enough to remember.

"Those are our gates," she said after some more walking, leading me through a large set of doors.

"Yeah..."

"And this is Ichiraku," she told me as she led me to a ramen stand a little bit later. "Hungry?"

"H-Hai."

"Well, just this once, I'll treat you," she told me as she pulled me into the little stand.

"Well, if it isn't Sakura the forehead girl!" a blonde girl said as we walked in.

"And Ino-pig! How are you?" Sakura asked, a VERY fake smile on her face.

"Oh, just fine," Ino said. Dang, she was the definition of beautiful.

"And is this your date? I'm guessing you've given up on my Sasuke-Kun?" she asked with mischief.

"In your dreams," Sakura huffed. "He's a homeless ninja who I'm giving a tour of the town to."

"Hm," Ino said uncertainly before standing from her stool and waltzing over to us, her hips swaying. Then she bent down and planted a kiss on my cheek. I'd heard the word supernova and knew what it meant, but this was my first time experiencing one.

I gasped and jumped backwards. I would've fallen over if Sakura hadn't caught me.

"What's the matter?" the blonde asked me with a chuckle. "Never been kissed by a girl before?"

"N-No," I whispered.

"Aw! You've got a little prude for a boyfriend, Sakura-Chan," Ino teased her apparent friend.

"I'm not dating him!" Sakura shouted, and I freed my hand in order to step away from the arguing pair. "Are you deaf AND daft Ino?!"

"Hmph," the girl humphed before turning and waltzing out, having left the money for her tab already.

"Sorry about Ino," Sakura told me, sitting me down in a stool beside her. "She's a little bit... what's the word... anyways, sorry she forced herself on you like that."

"No," I said, reaching up to feel the cheek she'd kissed, my right one, the one that hadn't scarred. "It was... pleasant."

"Yeah, well, try hanging out with her every day," Sakura told me as a couple of bowls came sliding up to us. "Eat up."

I did as I was told, enjoying my first warm meal in years.

3-3-3-3-3

"Thank you sooo much," I said, almost gushing, to Sakura. "I haven't eaten in so long."

"Really?" she asked me with some surprise before pushing her hand into my warm stomach.

"This jumpsuit's huge on you," she told me with astonishment. "You're cadaverously malnourished!"

"Um."

"How did that happen?" she asked me.

"Last time I ate I was in the hidden rain village," I told her. "Then I took a boat to a bridge. Then I got thrown into the forest, and... well, you know the rest."

"Really?" she asked me with surprise. "What's that village like?"

"Dreary," I told her, relaying to her how the weather was cold and wet and the people were always downcast or antisocial. "But it was the only place where I could-" I stopped myself.

"Could what?" she asked me.

"Nothing," I whispered, staring at th ground. She stopped walking and looked me directly in the eye.

"Could what?" she demanded, and I shivered.

"Steal food..." I whispered, avoiding her surprised eyes.

"Hey," she said sternly. "You're homeless, right? You had no choice. I won't condone it after you get a home, but there's no reason to do anything about it now."

Then I remembered everything going black.

3-3-3-3-3

"_What is your name, child?" the man asked me. The piercings in his nose were as off-putting as his deep and powerful voice._

"_I don't need to tell you!" I shouted, lunging at him as rain soaked my back. My shirt had shredded when he'd attacked me earlier. He grabbed me by the back of my neck, lifting me into the air._

"_You have spirit," he told me as I struggled. "Much like my former teacher. And you are helpless here."_

"_Says you!" I shouted, forming a familiar hand sign. He grabbed my hands with his free hand and looked me dead in the eyes. Those rings in his eyes were terrifying._

"_You are without a home,"  
he said. "Much as I was. I am a pacifist deity, so I will leave you alone for now. Be warned child- eventually, you will be forced to know pain."_

_Then he dropped me into the puddle-riddled land, where I blacked out._

3-3-3-3-3

"Hey! Snap out of it!" Sakura's voice rang out, and my eyes flipped open. Above me was Sakura, along with some other people from the village, murmuring with excitement and confusion.

One particular person caught my eye, though. A man with white hair, a black mask over his mouth and one eye.

He scared the ever-loving crap out of me.

I jumped up, and everybody backed away from me, the white-haired man leaping back further than the others, about five yards away. He grabbed his wrist and started charging up some scary jutsu.

Who was I kidding?

I held both hands out, focusing my chakra into them, letting them crackle with electric-like aura.

"Lightning Blade!" the man shouted, leaping towards me, his hand crackling. I stuck out one hand and caught his own, letting the other rest on the ground as I knelt down.

"Nijuu Chidori!" I yelled out, ramming my other hand up into his stomach, knocking him sky-high into the air.

Yes, I also knew the Chidori- I'd even gone as far as to create the Nijuu Chidori- Double Chidori- in order to better my fighting technique.

"Dragon Flame jutsu!" I exclaimed as I spewed a pair of fiery dragon-shaped blasts at my opposition. The dragons joined together- and struck the log that suddenly appeared in the air.

"What-?" I said with surprise before I felt a white- hot bolt of pain slash across the back of my head, making me yelp before collapsing onto my stomach.

"What's your name?!" the man shouted, holding a kunai against the back of my head. "Clan and name! Now!"

"Raikou!" I shouted. "Hatake Raikou!"

"What?!" the man asked me before shaking his head. "Liar! Tell me again!" He rolled me over an stared into my eyes.

I blinked. One of his eyes carried the Sharingan symbol. Just like mine- but I had it on both eyes.

"Hatake Raikou," I repeated, staring up at him after activating my own Sharingan.

"Kakashi Sensei?" Sakura said, staring at my assaulter with surprise.

Several people murmured with surprise. What was the big deal?

"You're not lying," Kakashi said, standing up and taking hold of his own head.

"That's right," I said, standing up.

"Do you have a mother?" he asked me slowly.

"Dead," I said, before realizing I was saying this to a total stranger. "Who wants to know?"

"Rai..." he whispered before embracing me. "You've grown."

"W-What?" I asked with surprise.

"You're my son."


	2. Chapter 2

LightningSword5: Here's another chappie, enjoy! BTW- Let's just pretend that Kakashi is 34, okay? Slight change. But whatever, enjoy and REVIEW PLZ!

The Lightning Shinobi Chapter 2

"W-What?!" I asked in a shout as Kakashi released me. "No! You aren't my dad!"

"Yes. I am..." he said, and I saw the inside of his mask curve upward. "I'm Hatake Kakashi, Rai. Glad to see you again."

He had used the nickname that my father used before his sudden disappearance.

"Where did you go?!" I demanded as the crowd continued to murmur around us. "When mom died..."

"I had to fend off the man who killed your mother. It never occurred to me that you would be kidnapped by one of his subordinates. And then... What happened?"

"They stole my eyes," I whispered, to which the crowd gasped in surprise. "Kabi... Kaba..."

"Kabuto?" Kakashi asked me.

"Yeah," I said. "Kabuto had me injected with the genes of some guy named Itchy..."

"Itachi?" the man asked once more.

"Yeah. And then... for a whole month, new eyes were growing inside of my skull. That's the only reason I have Sharingan."

"I guess so," Kakashi said, looking close to tears. My father never cried. "I'm so sorry I let you get kidnapped, son..."

"I..."

"I named you for lightning," he said to me. "I loved you with everything I had- as did your mother. I searched for you for years... and then I tried to fill the void by training a three-man cell of shinobi. I thought I'd never find you..."

"How do I know you're my father?" I asked him with suspicion.

"Take a look at yourself," he told me. "You have my hair, my build, you even have my face."

"So THAT's what your face looks like!" Sakura shouted, but stopped when she realized how much attention she drew to herself, blushing as profusely as her name.

"But..." I whispered, looking down to the ground. "You already have a team of three, right? You couldn't train me..."

"Well, I'm sure the hokage could make an exception until the other member of this team returns," he told me.

"Other member?"

"Sakura here," he said, pointing to her. "Is one of them. Another is Uzumaki Naruto. The last one... his name is Uchiha Sasuke."

I'd dreamed about that name. The one who'd invented Kirin.

"Sasuke might not come back for a little while, but Naruto went on a training trip with the legendary Sannin Jiraiya."

"The old frog man?"I asked with recognition. "I met him once."

"Really? When?" Kakashi asked, smiling under his mask.

"When I was seven, he taught me fire jutsu," I told him. "I've made some myself! Wanna see?!"

"Well, why not?" he said with a shrug, pocketing the book he'd been reading.

"Wait, you two!" Sakura broke in. "I need to tell lady Tsunade that my mission was a success! Why don't you come with me to prove it?"

We both shrugged simultaneously, and then looked at each other with surprise. No doubt about it- this was my dad.

3-3-3-3-3

"Miss Tsunade!" I shouted as I burst into the hokage's office, panting.

"What is it?" Tsunade asked, setting down a bottle of sake and brightening when she saw me.

"Sakura wanted me to come and tell you that her mission was a success because she gave me a tour and she helped me find a place to stay and that place to stay is my dad's house because I found my father and he's Hatake Kakashi!" I shouted without ever once pausing.

"Your father is Kakashi?" she asked as my dad and Sakura came in.

"That's right!" father beamed proudly, and it was easy to tell even with the mask and without the Sharingan.

"Yeah, so, I finished my mission," Sakura said, and Tsunade nodded her approval, even through her shock.

"You are dismissed, Sakura," she said authoritatively.

"Okay then," she said with a nod before walking up to me and kissing me right on the scar. "Bye, Rai."

As she walked out, my father chuckled. "Things were just like that for me when I was your age. How many girls have kissed you today?"

"Two, dad."

"You'll be a regular heartthrob once the other genin in this town know you're here," Tsunade said disapprovingly. "You better not start dating multiple girls at once... boy."

"His name is Raikou," dad told her. "And I'll make sure he doesn't."

"You know, it could just be motherly intuition," Tsunade said. "I felt compelled to be near him myself."

"Take advantage of that," dad told me coaxingly. "Make the girl you love be all over you!"

"Um," I said. "I don't love anyone yet..."

Both the hokage and my father fell over before standing back up rapidly.

"T-That's okay too, son," dad said, sweatdropping and grinning simultaneously. "Take your time. You've got whoever you go after, though."

"Maybe build up some muscle, though," the hokage suggested. "You're paper thin."

"Okay..." I muttered, embarrassed. "Um day, you wanna see my jutsu?"

"Sure," he said. "Let's go."

"Bye, Granny!" I called over my shoulder.

"Bye, Kakashi! Bye, Rai-Kun!" Tsunade called after us, grinning.

3-3-3-3-3

When my father and I reached the training field, there was a three-man cell and a-

"Look at you!" I shouted with childish glee as I ran towards the dog who promptly presented its belly for a scratching. "You so cute!"

"Akamaru?" a boy in a black jacket said as he walked over with a brunette girl and a... person with shades and a gray jacket covering nearly all of... their upper torso. "What's going on...?"

"Sorry," I said sheepishly as I let the dog get up, slightly disappointed at having to stop. "When I see a dog I can't help myself."

"So you like dogs, eh son?" dad asked me as he flipped to the next page in his book.

"SON?!" the boy who owned the dog shouted with surprise. "Kakashi sensei, did you just say he was your-?"

"Yup," my father said with a nod. "Why don't you introduce yourself, bud?"

"H-Hai," I said nodding to my father and turning to face the trio. "My name is Hatake Raikou." I bowed slightly, to which I received a clap on the back.

"Aw, don't be so formal!" Akamaru's owner told me with a grin. "I'm Inuzuka Kiba, and these are my teammates Hyuga Hinata and Aburame Shino. Nice to meet you!"

The girl was blushing slightly as she muttered a "hello" and the other boy gave me a slight nod.

"Anyway, we were just getting ready for a sparring exercise, and you coming here makes things perfect!" Kiba went on. "You can be on my team, and you, Akamaru and I can stomp my teammates here!"

"No," dad said suddenly. "That won't be necessary."

"Eh?" Kiba and Hinata chorused.

"Rai can take you all himself," father said with a smirk.

"D-Dad?!"

"Don't worry, Rai," he told me coaxingly. "I know you have it in you. And if you don't, we'll learn what you need to improve on!"

"Um."

"Well, okay," Kiba said reluctantly as Akamaru joined his side. "We fight better as a three-man cell anyway."

"Don't be surprised when my parasitic beetles and I trounce you," Shino said, his sunglasses gleaming in the sunlight. Beetles? Ugh. I HATE beetles.

"I-I won't lose if I-I'm with my friends," Hinata said confidently.

I looked to my father, and he grinned.

"Show me those jutsu you made for yourself, Rai," he ordered me. I nodded. If my father had confidence in me, I had to win.

"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba shouted, kicking off the fight as he and his dog drilled their way towards me.

"Chidori Jinrai!" I exclaimed, ramming my hand into the ground. The Chidori Jinrai (Chidori Thunderclap) was one of my specially made jutsu. It released a deafening sound that petrified all around me with pain in their ears. The effect was instantaneous on Kiba and Akamaru, who both fell beside me.

"Nijuu Chidori!" I shouted out, throwing them both upwards and then charging my hands with the familiar electric aura before striking.

Next, I turned to Hinata, who was covering her ears, her eyes filled with tears.

"I-I can't hit a girl," I whispered before all I could see was a cloud of black.

All over my skin they crawled. The beetles from Shino's attack had me trapped- or so they thought.

"Odama Kaen!" I screamed, and a fireball the size of the third hokage's face on the hokage monument enveloped me. Odama Kaen (Giant Flame) was essentially just that- a giant flame. The beetles either burned up or returned to Shino, who looked distressed, at the prospect of his beetle's uselessness.

"Nijuu Dorogon Dansu!" I shouted out once more, this time summoning a dragon made of electricity and another made with blue fire and spinning rapidly with the two of them surrounding me. Nijuu Dorogon Dansu (Double Dragon Dance) was an attack that summoned the two dragons and protected me from any harm. I could also throw either dragon at my foe's which was usually what I did first, considering the hefty amount of chakra it took to keep both dragons stable.

I threw the lightning dragon and fire dragon at Shino, who promptly collapsed next to Kiba and his dog.

"And then there was one," I said, looking over to Hinata, who had assumed a fighting stance and was facing me with courage. "Aaaaaand I still can't hit a girl."

"You'd b-best," Hinata said with hardly a stutter. "I'm coming for you!"

Her chakra-laced hands moved almost too fast for me to see, even after I activated my sharingan. I could read and copy all jutsu with it, and I'd done so once with a man that had a huge sword.

"Water dragon jutsu!" I shouted out, launching a dragon of water at Hinata and wrapping it around her before slamming her into the ground. Now all three shinobi were down.

"Son," My father said harshly, and I winced.

"H-Hai, dad?"

"You..." he started before grinning. "Are a little prodigy. You've got all the skills I'd hoped you'd have and more. You know how to prevent your enemies from attacking you, you know how to take your enemies down, and you know how to make use of the Sharingan that you've been cursed with. You're Chunin level, if not Jonin level."

"S-Seriously?" I asked, warmth spreading across my chest as my foes picked their selves up.

"Really," he responded. "In fact, I don't think you even need to attend ninja school. You deserve a chunin rank anyway."

""T-That's awesome!" I shouted as the trio of chunin walked up to me.

"Man, you owned us," Kiba groaned. "You aren't bad- not at all."

"You're very good," Hinata told me with a smile.

"I'm impressed," Shino told me. "You laid waste to our planning. You're skilled."

"Thanks guys," I said, blushing slightly. "I'm glad I met you."

"Welp, I'm beat," Kiba said with a yawn. "Why don't we turn it in, guys?"

"Okay," Hinata chirped as Shino grunted in agreement. The three walked past me wit h a wave of goodbye. Hinata turned and kissed me on the cheek, surprising me as the other girls had.

"You're slayin' 'em, big guy," my father said with a grin.

3-3-3-3-3

"Rai!" my father's voice awakened me, making me rise from my futon and yawn slowly.

"Yeah dad?" I asked, smiling as I realized I'd spent my first night in a house that was my own, with a dinner that my father had made, in the town where I would live in for the rest of my life. No more Orochimaru experiments. No more running for my life. No more guys in black cloaks with red clouds trying to kill me.

"Come here," he commanded. "I need to show you something."

I hopped up and ran to my father, who told me to close my eyes.

"And turn off that Sharingan!" he said scoldingly, which I did. I felt movement on my forehead before he told me to reopen my eyes.

"You're now officially a Leaf Village ninja!" he told me as he showed me a mirror. There I was, sporting a leaf headband on my forehead. I grinned gleefully and hugged my father to myself.

Things were finally starting to look up.


	3. Chapter 3

LightningSword5: Next chappie. That's all.

The Lightning Shinobi Chapter 3

That day, I barely caught a glimpse of a blonde-haired ninja before he was atop a pole that rose above the entire village.

"Everyone!" he shouted to the world. "Uzumaki Naruto has returned!"

"Wow," I said to myself as I looked up at him. "He looks... exciting."

I leapt up the pole which he stood upon, scaling it by applying chakra to my feet. His jumpsuit was similar to my own, except everywhere his was orange; mine was light blue, kind of like a sapphire gleaming in the sun's light.

When I reached the top of the pole, he'd disappeared. Startled, I looked for him from the pole to see his figure at the bottom of the pole, standing in front of Sakura.

"It's been a while, Sakura-Chan," he said to her, grinning.

She gave him a small smile, sizing him up.

_Wait, _I thought to myself. _Wasn't Uzumaki Naruto the name of one of dad's other trainees? _

This was the perfect chance to meet part of my father's team! I jumped down off of the pole, falling down towards them before putting my foot on the pole and going horizontal right above the blonde's head. Sakura gasped, almost giving me away.

"What is it Sakura-Chan?" Naruto asked as I crossed my eyes and let my tongue loll out right above his head.

"N-Nothing, Naruto," Sakura said, trying not to laugh.

"Eh?" Naruto looked up just a second too late as I hid behind the pole, my hand over my mouth to keep myself from chortling.

"Hey, Sakura," Naruto said as he walked around the pole, always on the opposite side of me as I kept moving, grinning at Sakura as I passed her. "What's going on?"

"Oh, nothing, Naruto," Sakura said mischievously. "Nothing's going on."

"I just have the feeling I'm being watched..." Naruto said as I leapt over his head once more, staring down at him from above.

"Funny... I've got the same feeling..." Sakura said, innocently smiling at him as he passed her once more.

"What's goin' on? Seriously, Sakura," Naruto thought aloud suspiciously. "Something's off here, and you know what it is!"

"Why, I have no idea what you mean," Sakura gasped, feigning surprise.

"Sakuraaaaa," Naruto moaned.

"Alright, look up," she told him, giving in.

"Agh!" Naruto cried out when he saw me standing there on the side of the pole, grinning down at him.

"'Sup, Uzumaki?" I asked him.

"You, right now," he told me with a small smile. "How long have you been up there?"

"Since you got here," I fibbed before jumping down to land. "I've been watching you the whole time."

"Are you a stalker?" Naruto asked me, nervously looking around. I shook my head no, looking over to Sakura.

"Oh! Naruto," Sakura said, grabbing his attention immediately. "Is Raikou. He's Sasuke's stand-in for right now."

"Alright!" Naruto said with another grin. "Nice to meet you! Hey, how come I've never seen you before?"

"Um."

"It's a long story," Sakura said, chuckling nervously. "He was kind of... missing until just recently. But he found his dad just yesterday, so..."

"Oh, good for you!" Naruto shouted over-enthusiastically. "Hey, who's your-"

"Raikou!" a voice shouted over to me, making my ears perk up in an admittedly doglike fashion.

"Lightning Blade!" the voice rang out.

"Chidori!" I shot back, charging at my assaulter. Our electrically-charged hands met, and my father and I both went flying back.

"Whoo!" I shouted out with excitement from going airborne. Then came the landing...

"D'oh!" I landed completely upside down, jarring my head, before skidding a couple feet and falling onto my back.

"Whaaaat?!" Naruto exclaimed, his eyes wide as he looked back and forth between us. "K-Kakashi sensei, what's going on?!"

"Oh, just a friendly greeting, Naruto," my father told his student as he stood up, dusting himself off. "Hey, wait- Naruto!"

"Hi!" Naruto greeted his teacher. "Nice to see you again!"

"I see you've grown some, Naruto," my dad said with a smile. When he smiled, you could only tell because his eye closed.

"Not to mention you've met my son."

"Eh?" Naruto said, looking around. "I have? Who is he? You have a SON, Kakashi Sensei?!"

"I'm right here," I said with a grin.

"AGH!" Naruto screamed, leaping away from me. "W-what's going on, dattebayo?!"

"Dattebayo?" I asked with confusion. "Are we playing a made-up words game? Oh! Here's mine- Biggityboomaloo!"

"What are you doing, Dattebayo?!"

"What are you doing, Biggityboomaloo?! ... Heh heh, this game's pretty fun!"

"Alright, stop, you two," my father said sternly, clasping his hands together. "Rai, Dattebayo is just Naruto's... catchphrase."

"Then mine's 'Believe it!'" I said, grinning.

"No, see, that doesn't work either," my dad said, sweatdropping.

"Eh?"

"Let's just leave that alone for now," Naruto said, walking up to me. "So, you're our new teammate AND Kakashi Sensei's son, huh?"

"Hai."

"Well, I don't know if you're the right material for that kind of thing, fella!" he said, leaning in close, his eyes narrowed threateningly.

"You need to brush your tee-"

"Training field! We'll see who's stronger!" he ordered me, taking off.

"Um."

"Hoo boy," Sakura muttered. "Naruto really hasn't changed at all..."

"No choice, then," my dad said, flipping the page in his ever-present book. "Go and fight with Naruto."

And then I remember everything going black.

3-3-3-3-3

"_This guy's really stubborn... Hm." I said to myself as I flew towards him, my beautiful clay bird flapping its wings powerfully._

"_Sand burial!" he shouted out as torrents of sand surrounded me, enwrapping and immobilizing me._

_I set off an explosion to free myself, my hand's tongue forming another clay bird as I flew away._

"_Not good... Hm." I thought aloud. He'd torn my clothes slightly, not to mention he was beating my face in. _

"_I'll end this all... with a bang!" I shouted out before spawning my most beloved creation and dropping it to the village below._

"_No!" the kazekage's voice rang out._

3-3-3-3-3

"Rai, snap out of it... again!" Sakura shouted at me.

"Ugh..." I moaned, sitting up.

"Hey," Naruto said worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"Do you have a tongue on your hand?" I asked him drowsily.

"... Ehhhhhh?!"

"What are you talking about?!" Sakura asked incredulously.

"Are you feeling alright, Raikou?" my father asked, putting his palm on my forehead with worry. "Did I hit you too hard?"

"Naw," I murmured, shaking my head. "Never mind. Just crazy talk."

"Man, and Pervy Sage called ME weird," Naruto muttered as he walked off, Sakura following.

" ... Son," my father got my attention. "What made you ask that?"

"Nothing, dad," I lied slowly. "I just felt a little tired is all..."

"This is twice you've fallen unconscious in the street," he told me, looking at me for confirmation. "Does this happen often?"

"What, it doesn't for you?" I asked with genuine surprise. "It happens at least once a day for me."

"What?!" my father looked at me with fear. "Rai! How long has this been going on?!"

"Ever since I escaped Orochimaru," I said, blinking. "Why?"

Okay, so after a short lecture, I learned that most people DON'T faint on a daily basis. Who'd of thunk it.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but what's wrong with you?" my father asked me after he'd finished explaining.

"I'm Hatake and have Sharingan," I offered. "Other than that, I don't know."

"We might need to get the fifth to look at you," he told me. "She might know how to fix you so you don't faint anymore."

"Fix me?" I asked, slightly offended. "You make it sound like I'm broken."

"You aren't" he reassured me before embracing me. "You're perfect."

"Um."

"Anyways, you and I need to catch up with Naruto," he told me, letting go and taking off.

"Hey! No fair dad, you got a head start!"

"All's fair in love and war, Rai!"

3-3-3-3-3

"You're late, Kakashi Sensei!" Naruto shouted as soon as we arrive. "Dattebayo!"

"Relax," my father sighed. "We helped this old lady with a hefty load on the way here."

"Um, no we didn't-"

"Shush, Rai!" my father tried to stop me too late.

"The important thing is, we're here," I tried, sweatdropping and chuckling nervously.

"Alright, Naruto, you wanted to fight with my son, right?" my dad asked, pocketing his book. "Well, I'm going to watch."

"As am I," Sakura said with a smile. "I'll be able to heal you when you've gotten your butt kicked."

"... Who were you talking to, Sakura-Chan?" Naruto asked. I was wondering the same thing.

"One of you two," she told us with a shrug.

"It was you!" we shouted simultaneously, pointing at each other.

"Oh, you wanna go?!"

"Let's do this, dattebayo!"

Suddenly, after a huge puff of smoke, there were about a hundred Narutos surrounding me and charging at intimidating speeds. Some were in the air, some were laying waste to whatever speed limit reality had set on the ground. I made myself proud by staying on guard, though.

"Odama Kaen!" the fireball that surrounded me made every single one of the Narutos disappear before it died out, leaving scorched grasses behind.

"What?" I exclaimed in surprise. "Where did he-"

"Rasengan!" his voice cried out right behind me, just in time for me to jump over his head and watch him run past me.

_What is that thing in his hand? _I asked myself. _Rasengan, hm... From the way he cried out, it sounds like a pretty serious jutsu._

I tossed a kunai that my father had given me towards Naruto-

Who disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Wha-"

"Rasengan!" he cried out again, and I leapt upwards like last time- directly into him.

"Agh!" the sphere in his hand spun in different directions, boring into my stomach and forcing me down into the ground, which was slowly cracking open under me from the force of his attack.

Then- it happened so fast I could hardly believe it- the world seemed to split apart directly under me and I fell at a blinding speed, being carried by the twisting and churning sphere before landing in a pit filled with water, where the sphere promptly exploded.

I coughed up a small bit of blood, wiping my mouth with the cuff of my jumpsuit's sleeve, glaring up at the shinobi who'd wounded me. My shirt portion of the jumpsuit had been ripped open, and by some miracle my belly was, for the most part, unmarked. But I was really wet...

I threw my shirt to the ground, and couldn't help but grin as Sakura promptly fainted up on dry land.

"Eh?" Naruto made a noise of surprise upon noticing her sudden dropping of consciousness- just long enough for me to jump in and attack.

"Chidori!" I shouted out, ramming my hand into his stomach in a clawed formation, digging each fingertip into a different part of his torso simultaneously before launching him upwards. He shouted out, in pain, and I took the opportunity to jump up and strike again.

"Rasen-"

"Nijuu Chidori!" I stopped him mid-attack, grabbing his hand while it prepared and ramming the other into his back after a quick spin. He landed with a resounding crash right where I'd just been, coughing up blood in a similar fashion to my own before jumping to his feet.

I blinked. Why were his eyes becoming so... intimidating? And what was with that red chakra? The way he got down on all fours, and this new chakra seemed to for a tail... There was something different about this guy.

"Well, isn't that special," I said out loud from the top of the water-filled crater. He growled, baring his teeth and revealing lengthened canines.

"Well, I'll just have to hope I'm more special than- gagh!" I shouted out before collapsing to the ground.

"Raikou?!" my father shouted out with surprise before running to my side. "What did-" he stopped with a sharp intake of breath.

"Hurts..." I cried, holding my upper shoulder for dear life as it throbbed, making my entire body ache.

"Rai," my father whispered as Naruto joined us, the red chakra having mostly receded. "Has this happened before?"

"N-Never," I choked out, biting down on my lip to keep from screaming.

"Kakashi sensei," Naruto whispered, looking at the same spot on me that my father had. "Is that..."

"Son, I need you to come with me," he ordered.

"No!" I shouted at him, forcing myself to stand. "We aren't done yet!"

"Son, listen to me," dad said firmly. "You have a serious problem that we need to fix. Right. Now."

"There's nothing wrong with me!" I lashed out at him, my hand nearly hitting him right in the face before he dodged back. "You said it yourself- I'm perfect!"

"There's nothing wrong WITH you," he said slowly. "But there's something wrong about you!"

"There's no difference!" I fired back, anger seeming to cloud my vision. Then I realized- it was hair. Grayish blue hair was falling over my eyes. I shoved it aside, looking down at my arms. My skin had gone from its regular shade to a dull gray as well, and my hands seemed to be burning before they too became that gray shade.

And the power. Oh, what power this was! I felt completely invincible! I felt like I could've just sprouted wings and-

"Holy crap!" I shouted as I felt myself rise into the air. I looked behind myself and saw- you'll never believe this- a pair of wings! Well, really what they looked like was two hands facing palm-upwards with webbed fingers. But hey, I could fly!

AND- I could beat Naruto.

"Let's finish this!" I shouted down with glee as I dove down towards Naruto from a good few feet in the air.

"Naruto," I heard my father whisper. "Knock him out."

What?

"W-What?!" I barely had time to shout before I was thrown into the ground by a gigantic red arm that came from my opponent's back. I was picked up once more, and then slammed right into the same spot.

Then again.

Then again.

Then again.

And then he finally stopped, holding me in the air directly in front of my father, who was staring at me with some mix of grief, sorrow and disappointment.

"So I'm perfect," I muttered, barely clinging to consciousness. "Perfect my neck."

I spit at the ground in front of his feet.

Then I remember everything going black.

3-3-3-3-3

"Oh, but you are perfect, child," the man whispered as he looked through the eyes of his pet snake. "Such a perfect pawn."

"Thisss boy," he whispered. "He will make a wonderful asssissstant... the only issssue isss whether I should take my Sssasssuke or him for my body. Hm hm hm hm hm... Thisss will be interesssting."

3-3-3-3-3

I stared down at my son as he fainted, falling to the ground at my feet as Naruto dropped him. Both of the ninja reverted before I lifted Rai onto my shoulder.

"What happened?" Sakura asked, having woken up after falling unconscious from the sight of my son shirtless.

"Recognize this, Sakura?" I asked my only female student, showing to her Raikou's shoulder. Her eyes widened and she looked as though she couldn't breathe.

"H-Hai, sensei, she finally managed to choke out.

"Curse mark," I muttered. "Why does Orochimaru have to go and mess up all of my students?"

"All?" Sakura asked, eyeing me with question.

"Wouldn't you be happier if Sasuke were here?" I asked her sadly. She paused.

"Point taken," she said. "So... you think he'll turn out like him?"

"Dear god," I whispered, half praying, half answering Sakura's question. "I hope not."

3-3-3-3-3

"Rai?" my father's voice woke me up and I looked up at him before putting an arm over my eyes.

"Yeah, dad?"

"How do you feel?"

"Like a lion in a field of catnip. Burning catnip."

"So, not good?"

"Give the man a prize."

He sighed before sitting me up in my futon, making me groan.

"How do you really feel?" he asked me, prying my arm away from my face and staring down at me.

"Like a bulldozer just ran over me."

"A what?"

"Nothing, just something I dreamed about."

"..."

"What?"

"Nothing. I just... I-"

"You want a regular kid," I interrupted him, staring at my lap.

"Regula-"

"Yeah. I'm sorry I'm screwed up," I went on, feeling close to breaking down. "I'm sorry I can't fight right. And I'm sorry that I let you down."

"You aren't screwed up," he told me, and I looked up at him slowly. "You fought just fine until your curse mark started acting up."

"My what?"

"Curse mark," he said, going into an explanation. "Orochimaru forced it onto you so that he could make you want to go to him."

"But I don't want to go to him," I whispered, looking back at my lap.

"And you didn't let me down," he told me.

"Liar."

"Wha-"

"Yes, I did let you down, and don't try to deny it. B-But I just wanted to show you that I could beat him. I-I wanted to make you proud."

"..."

"But I'm a screw-up, right? Of course I'd fail even at that."

"Rai..."

"But I... I can get better. I can make myself a great ninja! And then..." I mumbled the last part.

"And then what?"

"And then you'll love me," I muttered again, hiding my face in my hands.

I felt myself be lifted from the futon before sitting down on something warm. I looked up to see that my father was holding me in his lap, staring down at me seriously.

"Don't take this the wrong way," he whispered. "But I love you. No matter what. I just want to help you so that you don't end up like Sasuke did."

"How did he end up?"

"He went to Orochimaru and we haven't seen him since," he told me. "And I will NOT lose another precious person, you can count on that."

"Hurk!" I doubled over against my father's arm as an intense pain hit my shoulder.

"Just sit still," he whispered. "Just let it go. It'll be over soon."

I shook against his arms, as the pain wouldn't let up. It was like being hit in the shoulder with fifty Rasengans. It was at times like this that I wished I had a mother. They were better at things like this.

Eventually the pain dulled into a slight throb, and I reopened my eyes.

"What in the world was that?" I asked, looking up at my father.

"Just a little something to help you out," he whispered again. "Don't worry about it. You won't be able to fly anymore, but that's about it."

"Oh," I muttered. "I have a jutsu for flying anyway."

" ... What don't you have?" my father asked me with a chuckle.

"Friends."

3-3-3-3-3

"_Friends."_

Okay, that right there? That just about killed me when he said that. I would have dropped the genjutsu without Kurenai there to remind me to keep it up.

"_Hey, you can make some," _"I" said encouragingly. _"Naruto's easy to befriend, even if he can be a nuisance. What about Kiba? And don't tell me you've forgotten that three girls have kissed you since you got in the village."_

He was silent. I felt kind of bad, trapping him in a genjutsu so that I could seal the curse mark. He'd almost broken free when I'd done that.

I also felt kind of bad that all of the chunin (Neji and Naruto included) were watching this. The plan was to put him in a genjutsu where he believed that he was in the real world for a little while in order to see if he could break out himself or figure out that something was wrong.

"_Dad?"_

"_Hm?"_

"_I feel like... I'm being watched."_

"_Really? Hm."_

" _... Am I?"_

"_No, son, of course not. You're perfectly safe here," _"I" lied. _"Nobody here but you and me."_

" _... You're right. I'm just being weird again."_

"_Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. You're different. Everybody's special in their own way."_

"_Which is just another way of saying nobody is."_

"_Hey, I just told you to stop that. There's nothing wrong with you."_

"_Then why did you feel so compelled to send Naruto to knock me out? He was holding back up until that point."_

"_That curse mark was a danger to you and still could be. If I had let you keep going, you'd have gone power mad."_

"_So you admit there's something wrong with me," _he muttered, his eyes downcast.

"_Is it your fault?"_

"_No."_

"_Was it your choice?"_

"_No."_

"_Does it change who you are on the inside?"_

"_No."_

"_Then there's nothing wrong with you, right?"_

" _... No, I guess there isn't."_

"_Good."_

Silence met the room as we all watched.

"_Who do you like, son?"_

"_Hm?"_

"_Out of the three girls you've met so far, who do you like?"_

Now I was just teasing Hinata, Sakura and Ino, who had their own respective reactions. See if you can guess who did which- Glared at me, puffed their chest out with pride, or blushed.

"_Well, Ino's really, really beautiful," _he said with a smile. Ino laughed to herself as she grinned. _"If not a little impulsive." _Ino then started growling at him.

"_Sakura's kinda pretty too," _he went on. _"But she's just a tiny bit violent." _Sakura crossed her arms and huffed.

"_And Hinata's... Well, she's just so sweet!" _Hinata turned into a tomato, I swear. _"Nothing wrong with her! But, I bet she's already vying for someone else. Ino and Sakura both want Sasuke, so..." _He groaned. _"Nothing for me there." _

The three girls all sort of scratched the backs of their heads as Ten-ten slowly walked away, not wanting to face my torment.

"_You should meet Ten-ten," _"I" told him. _"She's really sweet too, you know."_

"_Um."_

"Kakashi senseeeeei," Ten-ten moaned as everybody in the room snickered.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop," I said. The real me this time. "Just trying to keep his mind off of himself."

I augmented the reality in the genjutsu to make Raikou tired. He yawned sleepily, showing my work had been a success.

"_Tired?" _"I" asked him.

"_Yeah. Let me up," _he muttered as he pushed me away from him. _"Don't you think I'm a little old to be in your lap, anyway?"_

Okay, I'm surrounded by people my son's age that all have the ability to use what I say against him or against me. What's the right thing to say? Honestly.

"_What do you think, Rai?"_

"_I think so. Even if I don't really mind it. I only just found you, after all."_

A chorus off "Awwwww!" went through the room. Lee, being the more eccentric one, started crying.

"_Well, goodnight, Raikou."_

"_Night, dad."_ He fell asleep. When he woke up, he'd still be trapped in genjutsu.

"Is that really your son, Kakashi sensei?" Akimichi Choji asked me, to which I nodded.

"If he wants friends, I shall make sure to give him the most energetic greeting I can muster! Yosh!" Lee cried out. "I will invite him to join me for training! I'll go easy on him and only run 250 laps around Konoha!"

"That's not really going easy, Lee," Hyuga Neji said, groaning.

"He looks nice without a shirt," Ino said, mischievously eyeing Sakura. "How'd you get him like that?"

"Blame Naruto," Sakura said as my blonde studet tried to inconspicuously escape the room in my house.

"You know, sensei," Ten-Ten muttered to me as Ino launched into some crazy rant on poor Naruto. "That was really uncalled for."

"I had to be fair, you know," I sighed, pulling my mask over my Sharingan eye. "I'd humiliated all the girls here."

"Hm," Ten-ten muttered something under her breath before going to join her team.

"Kakashi," Kurenai said to me, walking up to my side.

"Hm?"

"How long do you want him to stay in there?"

"Until he can break out by himself, if that's possible," I told her in response. "Can you make fake chunin like Sakura come to see him every so often?"

"Ask me whenever you want me to," she sighed. "It won't be a problem then."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," I told her.

After everybody had left, I stared at him through the metaphorical looking glass. The fake me was doing the same thing. The strange thing was that Sharingan could see right through genjutsu like this one. So why wasn't he using it?

_Because he doesn't feel threatened enough, _I thought to myself. _There's no element of danger because I haven't implemented one. _

I hoped he'd come out soon, because I wanted to hold him just to know that he was really there.

3-3-3-3-3

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately," I said to my father, who was lying down beside me, reading a book.

"Do tell."

"Like, is any of this for real? Or not?" I mused. "I mean, something doesn't feel right."

"You're worrying too much," he told me as I stood up. "You're perfectly safe."

"I know I'm safe," I told him. "I don't feel endangered or anything, but... I KNOW something's off."

I walked out the door to find an empty Konoha. The wind blew and carried some stray leaves, but there was nobody there whatsoever.

"Is everybody on a mission?" I asked myself. That had to be it, right?

I walked out of the house- and froze. The feeling of being watched was there again, and I couldn't tell who or what was watching me. I slowly turned around to see that my father was gone.

My heartbeat seemed to speed up as I walked through the village, apprehensively turning my head in all directions. Where could he have gone? He just disappeared. I didn't feel safe anymore.

Suddenly-

"Nijuu Chidori!" I shouted, throwing both electrically-charged hands out. The air CRACKED. Like glass. The entire world seemed to shatter around me, and then I was falling, falling, falling. I was surrounded by water, but I fell straight through it. No floating, just a constant fall.

Then, suddenly, I was standing on a platform in the middle of the sea in the hidden rain village, looking around. My father was standing on the water a few yards away, and as I stepped out to go and see him, I froze.

The tide was moving out. What tide? This was the only platform for a pretty good distance. There shouldn't have been a tide. But as the water receded, an enormous wave started forming in the distance.

"Dad!" I called out. He turned to me and smiled, holding out his hand. How could he have not noticed the wave?! I ran out to grab him and get us both out of there, but the wave was faster than me.

As the water crashed over my head, I felt the actual floatation one would expect from water. There my father was, a few feet away, still smiling and holding out his hand. I tried to swim to him, but a current pulled me away and threw me above water.

It had been bright and day just a couple seconds ago, but now the sun was just barely rising. What was going on?

"Raikou!" a voice called out to me, and my head snapped in the direction of said voice. There was Sakura, standing on... sand? How was that possible?

As I ran to ask her just that question, she grinned a beautiful grin before freezing, her expression going from joy to surprise in an instant as she looked towards the sky.

My eyes traced her vision, and I gasped when I saw a meteor shower not too far from us. How could I have missed it earlier? It was astonishingly, radiantly...

Wait, hold on a second. Was that a body? Why would a body be falling with a meteor shower? That makes no-

Why would MY body be falling with a meteor shower? I looked down at my hands to make sure I was still me- and suddenly, I saw the sky rushing upward below me. But I had just been on a beach! How did-

I collided with the water, breaking its surface and falling the way I'd been just a few moments beforehand. I managed to flip over, making it so that I was right-side up, before landing on an invisible floor.

"What's going on?" I asked myself, looking around. I took a step forward. ONE step.

The ground seemed to explode with light beneath me as doves flew around UNDERWATER up to the surface. I looked down and saw that the floor I was standing on was translucent enough that I could see the ground way beneath the ocean. Where the light was coming from, I had no idea.

I looked around before I saw a road open to my right. A road... paved with snakes. The snakes seemed to be beckoning me to come and cross them, hissing invitingly, begging me to come and meet them. I hesitated for about half a second before going to cross them. If there was any way to get out of this insanity, I had to find it, right?

3-3-3-3-3

"What?!" I looked at where my son had just been, I'd tried showing him numerous illusions in order to tip him off to the fact that he was dreaming, but he didn't catch on. Then, he seemed to think about something before disappearing.

"Kurenai!" I shouted out, and she quickly emerged from the guest room I had her staying in, just in case I needed her help.

"Hai, Kakashi?" she responded. "Something happen?"

"Look!" I demanded, pointing to the looking glass. She gasped before punching it down. It reformed quickly, but there was still no Raikou.

"That usually works," she whispered. "I can deactivate my own genjutsu whenever I want to! But I can't close this one, and he's- He's-!"

"He's what?!" II asked, knowing the answer, though I didn't want it to be true.

"G-Gone, Kakashi. I don't understand."

"Wait," I said, brainstorming plans. "A genjutsu within a genjutsu. Is that possible?"

"An illusion of an illusion?" she asked me. "Hm... I suppose so."

"Somebody's put him in another genjutsu," I decided, putting my fist in my hand. I pulled back my mask and looked into the looking glass, and sure enough, there was Rai, walking through a field- made with snakes.

"This screams Orochimaru," I growled. "I can't believe that lowlife snake of a-"

"Kakashi, I-"

"Put me in there," I told her, hiding my eye once more. "I'll get in there with him and pull him out. This isn't about training anymore."

"Okay," she whispered, before she slowly started to swirl into the distance in a tornado of leaves.

_I'm coming, Rai. Just wait for me._

3-3-3-3-3

"Come to me," a voice emanated from somewhere. A voice that seemed somewhat... familiar.

"Who are you?"

"A friend, Raikou. Jussst a friend. Hm hm hm..." I felt prickles go down my neck as I walked forward.

"Can you tell me your name?" I asked, staying on guard.

"Oh, Rai," the voice hissed. "It'sss only been twelve yearsss sssince we lassst sssaw each other. Did you already forget your teacher?"

3-3-3-3-3

"Lightning Blade!" I shouted out, cutting through the wall of snakes that stood in my way. On the other side was a road made of the same snakes, who hissed their disapproval at me.

_Just a genjutsu. It can't hurt me. _

With that thought in mind, I plowed through them all, jumping across them. When a couple began to slither up my leg, I stomped them out with more lightning chakra.

3-3-3-3-3

"I'll give you ssstrength," the hissing came nearer as I walked on. "Jussst come back to me, boy."

"Show yourself," I demanded in a small voice, killing the effect I was going for.

"In time, Raikou," it continued as the snakes began to slither together and form one shape.

3-3-3-3-3

These snakes were becoming a real nuisance. Even as I avoided them in this field full of snakes, my only light being that of the platform I'd left behind, I was endangering myself. If I used Sharingan, I'd be forced out of the illusion, and then I'd be leaving Rai to Orochimaru. Every second counted.

I exclaimed in disgust as one of the hissing monstrosities wrapped around my arm before I batted it off with my other hand.

_Keep moving, Kakashi. Your son's life depends on it._

3-3-3-3-3

"Come to me," the voice went on as the snakes began to blur into an enormous white face. "You will gain all the power you desssire, and you will become blessed with your friends'sss admiration."

"They'll like me?" I asked, taking a step closer as the face sprouted long black hair.

"They'll love you, boy," the face told me, smiling a crooked, evil smile. "All of the leaf village will accept you. You will never feel better than you will when you come to me, believe that."

"It's tempting..."

3-3-3-3-3

"Argh!" I cried out before putting a huge amount of chakra into one enormous lightning blade and charging through the field of slithering creatures, watching them dissipate as my son came into view.

"Raikou!" I shouted before I was swept away by an enormous mass of snakes, their tongues feeling me everywhere before they bit down.

3-3-3-3-3

"But no thanks," I said holding one hand up and ramming it down. "Chidori Jinrai!"

The thunderclap blew every single one of the snakes away as the entire world seemed to break open again. This time, though, I was in my room.

I sat up quickly and saw a woman with black hair, who looked at me with surprise before performing a simple hand sign.

My father was next to me, lying down, but he snapped up upon seeing me.

"Rai!" he said, grabbing me and pulling me to him. "Are you alright? Are you okay, Rai?!"

"I'm fine," I told him in a raspy voice, shaking. "I just feel really... Really dizzy."

"Oh, thank God, Rai," he whispered, holding me ever tighter.

"Um."

"Kakashi sensei!" Naruto bellowed as he barged into the room. "Is Rai okay?! Kurenai sensei told me he was kidnapped by Orochimaru again!"

"Raikou!" Ino's voice shouted as she ran in. "Raikou, where are you?!"

"R-Rai-Kun, are you alright?" Hinata said with a stutter as she entered.

"Rai, are you alright?!" Sakura asked as she, too, ran into the room.

"I'm fine, guys," I croaked, forcing my way out of my father's grasp. "Just a little bit disoriented."

"Oi!" Naruto sighed with relief. "You had me scared, dattebayo!"

I was suddenly being held by three sets of arms, Ino's, Hinata's and Sakura's.

"Rai, oh, I'm so glad you're alright..." Sakura sobbed into my still bare chest.

"Rai-Kun, Rai-Kun..." Hinata kept saying over and over as she embraced me from the side, bawling.

"Kakashi sensei, don't ever do that again!" Ino demanded as my father walked up to my side.

"What's she talking about, dad?" I asked, looking up at me.

"I-I tried to train you to overcome genjutsu," he told me. "But then Orochimaru came and..."

" ... So that's all this has been," I whispered. Sakura and Ino slowly backed away from me, hearing my tone. "A big asinine training session?"

My father nodded slowly.

I burst out laughing, having to put my hands on my knees to keep from falling down, my dry throat scratching on each pained guffaw I let out. After a couple of seconds, everybody else in the room started laughing as well, first nervously, then all out.

"But seriously," I rasped once my laughter died down. "Please don't do that again. I don't think I could handle it."

"So... how are you feeling?" the brunette woman asked me.

"Um."

"Oh! Sorry, Raikou," she said with a smile before placing her palm on her upper chest. "My name is Yuhi Kurenai. I helped your father set up the genjutsu for your training."

"Well thanks," I grumbled. "I'm feeling fine, Lady Kurenai."

"Oh, that's hardly appropriate," she said with a smile. "Just Kurenai will suffice."

"Okay then, Kurenai," I said with a smile. "Kurenai... sensei. I actually am feeling a little bit raw..."

"Well, you did go a day without water," she told me as my father came into the room with a sake cup filled with precious H2O. I slurped it down without remorse as he poured cups for everyone. A sake cup was hardly enough water to quench my thirst.

"I'm guessing you're pretty hungry as well," my father said, to which I nodded.

"I got an idea!" Naruto exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "Let's go to Ichiraku, dattebayo!"

"What is it with you and Ichiraku?" Ino asked in a sigh.

"Well, I don't see why not," my father said. "Whoever wants to come had better."

"Alright! Last one there had to pay!" Naruto called before he disappeared in a streak of orange.

"Ah! Wait, Naruto!" Sakura cried as everybody stampeded out the door, not wanting the meal to come out of their budget.


	4. Chapter 4

LightningSword5: I'm happily writing again! Did you miss me? Be honest!

Raikou: Soooo, do you want them to say they missed you or be honest?

LightningSword5: Shut it, Rai! Oh, and btw, people reading this- I am stretching the time in the original series for the purpose of remaining... You know what, I'm stretching time. That's all there is to it.

The Lightning Shinobi chapter 4

I'd been in the Leaf Village for a few weeks now- and they'd been really quick weeks. I trained with my father for a little while, doing little missions along with him, Sakura and Naruto. I'd grown quite accustomed to the village, especially considering my previous living conditions- which were, as you know, zero. Occasionally my shoulder would throb, and whenever that happened my dad would freak out. Probably something to do with the curse mark, but it didn't do anything, so I wasn't worried, even if the throbbing was a little inconvenient.

I met a lot of people, like Shikamaru and Choji, Ino's teammates. Their sensei was Asuma Sarutobi, who was apparently the descendent of the first Hokage. Ten-ten, Rock Lee and Neji all worked a jonin guy named Might... Guy. Well, at least it was easy to remember. Lee had tried to get me to run laps around the village... he was a pretty energetic sort, like his sensei.

"Hey, Raikou!" Naruto's voice carried its way over to me from a few feet away, making me turn my head.

"Oh, hey, Naruto," I said with a smile. "What's up?"

"You and me! Training field! Now!" he declared, dashing his way past me without waiting for an answer.

"Um," I muttered as I watched him go before sighing. No sense in not following him, he'd probably just hound me about it later. Besides, other than the solo mission I'd done recently which involved going out and taking out a small band of thieves, I hadn't had a good fight in a little while.

I turned to run after him, preparing myself for a good fight before a pair of hands flashed from out of nowhere and went over me eyes, feeling soft and silky on my cheeks.

"H-Hey!" I shouted out in surprise.

"Don't move, Raikou!" a teenage girl's voice warned from behind me. "Move and you're dead, got it?"

"W-What's going on?" I asked as fear started to move in on me.

"Guess who it is and I might let you go," she said with a chuckle. Wait... okay, who did I know that was female? There was the Hokage, which wasn't very likely, Hinata probably wouldn't have been brave enough to pull something like this, and Sakura had been greeting me with a direct smile lately. So...

"It's got to be Ino," I said, not moving a muscle. The hands slowly left my eyes and I heard two footsteps going away from me. I turned to see the blond beauty herself, none to my surprise.

"So it was Ino," I said with a smile as she stared at me with an unreadable expression.

" ... Wrong answer, Rai," she said, returning the smile to me.

"Eh?"

"You should have guessed wrong once or twice, just to be a tease," she told me disapprovingly, although her smile never faltered.

"Um... I'm sorry?" I tried, to which I received a hearty laugh.

"I guess I'll let it slide, just this once," she chuckled. I just didn't know what to make of her...

"Um."

"Ya' know, Raikou," she went on. "We haven't seen each other for a little while. We finally both have some free time. So why don't we go somewhere together?"

"That sounds great!" I told her with a grin. "I think Sakura's off today too, so we could-"

"Shut up!" she hissed, having brought her hand to my mouth to cease my words. "Do you not know when you're being asked out?"

"Asked out?" I asked her, removing her silk hand from my lips.

"I'm doing you a favor, you know," she told me boastingly. "Everyone knows how beautiful I am. Only because I diet, though."

It was true. To me, she looked, in Sakura's words, cadaverously malnourished. Ino was paper thin.

"You don't starve yourself, do you?" I asked her with worry and suspicion.

"Th-That's none of your business!" she told me, blushing.

"If it means you'll eat, sure," I said with a shrug, going back to the original subject. "I'll be happy to go out with you."

"Great!" she smiled, her blush all but gone from her now only slightly rosy cheeks. "To Amaguriama we g-"

"Hey!" I shouted as a piece of paper landed square over my eyes, blocking my vision before I reached up to grab it.

"What is it?" In asked me, coming up behind me and peeking over my shoulder, on the tips of her toes. My eyes scanned the paper before realization dawned on me.

"It's a letter," I said. "Sent to me by Granny Tsunade."

"What's it saaay?" she pouted childishly.

"It says... Apparently, I need to meet with your team and go on a mission," I responded after reading briefly. "We're to meet with the Hokage at her mansion to get the full details."

"A mission? Now?"" Ino groaned. "Alright, alright... I'll get Choji and Shikamaru, then."

"Thanks," I said gratefully. "I have something I need to do before we leave too, come to think of it."

"What's that?"

"Get Naruto off my back," I responded, turning and dashing for the training field.

3-3-3-3-3

_There was once a clan knows as the Tobenai Clan. They believed in only one God, and only one salvation. As their name implied, they believed they were incapable of flight, or anything else, without their god's help- hence the name "Flightless."_

_Their arts were powerful, their skills rivaling those of the Uchiha clan. It seemed that nobody would be able to come near the level of these prodigal shinobi._

_Then one day, they all seemed to simply vanish._

3-3-3-3-3

"Ehhh?!" Naruto shouted with surprise and shock when I delivered the news. "Just you?! Nobody else from team seven?!"

"Just me," I confirmed. "Ino, Shikamaru, Choji and I are going with Asuma sensei."

"But why?" Naruto asked, his voice going high-pitched on the question. "Granny knows I'm a good ninja."

"She's also recognized my skills, apparently," I said with a shrug. "Dude, you floored me. You knocked me around like a ball. She has some specific reason for sending me on this mission instead of you, I'm sure of it."

"Guh..." he groaned in defeat, hanging his head down low. "Just make sure to ask her what that reason is, okay?"

"Sure, Naruto," I agreed with a small grin. "And hey- we still have some sparring to do, right?"

"I got cheated out of an easy win..." he grumbled. A vein bulged visibly on my forehead.

"Oh, did you?" I asked, preparing myself to fight with him, now that my pride had been insulted. "Let's go right now, then!"

"Yeah!" he shouted with triumph, now back to his regular hyper self. "Let's do it, dattebayo!"

"Let's get it started!" I responded, my grin now much wider. Naruto and I hadn't sparred in weeks, and when we did, we were interrupted by my random transformation. Curse mark or whatever. But now we could-

"HEY!" a voice carried its way over to me from the training field exit. "GET YOUR BUTT IN GEAR, RAI! WE'RE LEAVING!"

I turned in exasperation to see Choji with his hands cupped around his mouth, the rest of his team standing behind him.

"Agh, darn it..." I muttered as Naruto once again hung his head low. "Sorry, Naruto. Next time."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever."

I gave him an apologetic smile before turning to meet with my assigned companions.

Then I remembered everything going black.

3-3-3-3-3

"_Oh no, please no..." a sobbing voice came to my ears as my eyes opened slowly. "Please be alright, please don't die..."_

3-3-3-3-3

"Eh, don't worry about it," Naruto said. "That just happens to him sometimes."

"Raikou?" Ino's voice, filled with concern and surprise, was accented by her powerful perfume. I opened my eyes to see her staring down at me, hardly an inch away from my face, and for one heart-pounding instant, I thought she was going to kiss me.

"Yeah?" I whispered, staring up at her as I felt heat flow into my cheeks slowly.

"Oh. Good," she whispered back. "You're alright."

"Mmhm."

She had a hand holding herself up on my right side, and was leaning against my left. Her close proximity made me nervous, but... it also made me feel a little intrigued. Neither of us moved, just staring into each other's eyes. Her eyes were a sort of pale, but full, blue, and it felt as though I was drowning in them.

Eventually, Shikamaru coughed, and we were brought rapidly back to reality.

"While what's happening here is cute, this isn't the time," Asuma said, and Ino clumsily brought herself to her feet, now blushing even harder than she had in the streets earlier.

"R-Right," she muttered, flustered. "Let's go see the Hokage..."

I nodded in agreement with her before pushing myself onto my feet, sure that I, too, was blushing.

That one had been pretty vague. The vision, I mean. Really short. I was sure I hadn't seen it happen before, so did that mean it was in the future?

Had I foreseen my own death?

3-3-3-3-3

"Well, here we are," Asuma sensei said a couple of hours later. "The Hidden Sand Village."

The streets were paved in sand, the houses were made of sandy stones, and... well, there was a really sandy atmosphere to the place. Sand sand sand.

"Why five of us just to deliver a message?" Choji asked curiously, his hand hitting the bottom of a now empty bag of chips.

"No clue," I responded while Choji mourned his loss. "Any clue, Shikamaru?"

"What a drag," he groaned. "You seriously haven't guessed it yet? Geez... Even though we haven't read the message, it's probably pretty serious. Any shinobi could have attacked us and stolen the message. That's why the Hokage thought it safer to send five ninja instead of the traditional four."

"But why me?"I asked him. "Why not anyone else?"

"She probably just sent you on a whim," Shikamru said with a shrug. "Find a woman you can understand and you've answer all the world's questions, Rai."

_No, _I thought to myself as Asuma laughed while Ino strangled Shikamru. _Granny's smarter than that. She had some motive. I asked her myself and she told me it didn't matter... What's she really hiding?_

"At any rate," Asuma chuckled eventually. "We need to give the message to the Kazekage."

"Right," I agreed, falling in lie behind the more experienced jonin.

After a brisk walk, we'd reached the Kazekage's tower. Inside we found a boy, no older than me, sitting in the Hokage's seat. Red hair, a tattoo on his forehead (ouch.) and an... urn on his back.

"Hello, Kazekage," Shikamaru said, catching me off guard before bowing with respect. As the others followed suit, I knew I had to do so as well.

_Him? He's the Kazekage? He's my age!_

"Hello, shinobi of the Leaf Village," the boy said, looking up from whatever paperwork he was doing. "Ah... Naruto has written to me about you. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, and your teacher Asuma."

"What of you?" he asked, turning his head in my direction, his cold, ringed eyes chilling me before he gave me a warm smile.

"Oh! Um, Hatake Raikou, sir," I responded, bowing lower, if that was possible.

"Hm?" he looked me over. "So, you're the spawn of Kakashi sensei, eh?"

I nodded wearily.

"I'm Gaara, he told me," extending his hand. Then- get this- a hand made out of sand (cue rhyme police) materialized behind me and nudged me forward to take the real hand. I shook it with a nervous smile.

"You've no reason to feel unease," he told me. "Any ninja of the leaf is my friend, as we are allied nations."

"Um."

"We have a message for you, Gaara," Shikamaru said while holding the letter said message had been written on out to the Kazekage. He took the sand-encrusted paper, shook it out and flipped it open, his eyes skimming over it.

"Hm," he grunted, smiling up at us. "Thank you for delivering this to me. It's good to know Naruto's back."

"I-Is that all it says?!" Ino asked with surprise. "We could have just sent a messenger bird for that!"

"No," Gaara said, standing and walking up directly to me. "It also made a formal request of me."

"Request?" I asked, being mindful of the sand that wafted in through the clay windowsill. "What kind of request?"

"A request for me to spar," he paused. "With one Hatake Raikou."

" ... Ehhh?!"


	5. Chapter 5

LightningSword5: Okay, I'm back. And since I wasn't writing in October, I'm doing a Halloween special right now. So here, as my special guest, you all know him, he haunts your nightmares, he scratches on the walls, in the closet, in the halls, he's... SLENDERMAN!

Slenderman: Hi guys!

LightningSword5: You know the planet's obese when the scariest thing we have is named Slenderman.

Slenderman: Ha ha, good one.

LightningSword5: Why thank you, Sle-

Slenderman: DON'T LOOK AT ME!

LightningSword5: AGH!

Slenderman: Dude! Dude, you're okay. You're still alive.

LightningSword5: Phew! Oh, thank God. That's the only bad thing about being friends with you. If I look at you, I die.

Slenderman: I don't do it on purpose... I just wanna hang out...

LightningSword5: It's cool, bro. Oh! Question- what scares you?

Slenderman: The Tails Doll.

LightningSword5: Amen to that.

Tails Doll: I jUSt WAnT tO pLaY WITh yOu GuYS...

LightningSword5: ARGH! Yes, I feel the sunshine! Next chappie!

Tails Doll: PLAY WITH ME, MY CHILDREN!

The Lightning Shinobi chapter 5

"What?!" team Asuma chorused as they looked to the Kazekage, dumbfounded.

"Let me see that!" Shikamaru ordered, to which Gaara smiled and handed it over, despite his title and power.

"It's true," he muttered eventually. "Rai, how'd you swing this?"

"You wrote that in yourself!" Ino accused as she jabbed a finger at my stomach.

"I didn't write anything! I swear!" I told her, my hands held up to my chest.

"Hm," the Kazekage murmured as he looked over to me with a small smile. Somehow it looked unnatural. "I suppose I could..."

"What?!"

"Sir, I-" I began before his hand rose to silence me.

"Your Hokage obviously had a reason to ask me of something like this," he told me in his unorthodox low voice. "If she's placed enough confidence in you to formally request that we fight, you must have SOME strength. Besides, I'm in a good fighting mood."

"I can't believe this," Asuma muttered, and I was right there with him.

"I-"

"Either you spar with me or I send a letter back with you telling the Hokage you were unwilling to engage in combat," Gaara told me sternly.

I groaned. If Granny thought I was a wimp, she'd replace me with somebody else for team seven. And I'd lose pretty much all respect from my friends as well.

"I guess I don't have a choice," I mumbled, and the Kazekage gave me an approving smile.  
"Great," he hummed. "Follow me to my mansion's roof. There's plenty of room for us to... get messy."

I waited for him to turn away and start walking before shuddering. As I walked with my current team, Choji clapped me on the back saying "It was nice knowin' ya."

3-3-3-3-3

Once at the top of the mansion, I could feel adrenaline pumping in my veins.

"I'd suggest you others stay back," the Kazekage said, and my ever-supportive team jumped away immediately.

"What do your friends call you?" the Kazekage asked me.

"Rai, sir," I replied, trying not to shake. I was admittedly resigned to my fate, but that didn't mean I wasn't afraid.

"Got a girlfriend?" he pressed on, smiling.

"N-Not really."

"You very easily could," he told me in response. "There are many beautiful chunin in the Hidden Leaf village."

"Um."

"Alright, alright," Gaara sighed. "I'll stop prodding. Let's get this started."

The cork holding his urn closed popped off on its own, and sand started to seep out of it, flowing around him in a circle. I activated my Sharingan in preparation for what was to come, keeping my powerful eyes trained on my opposition. I was in for a serious battle, and I wasn't sure if I was ready.

Suddenly, almost too fast for my eyes to follow, a stream of sand arced its way over to me, nearly nailing me in the stomach. I leapt up just in time, avoiding the sand while watching him.

Mistake number one- jumping into the air, where I was incapable of proper combat evasion.

Mistake number two- taking my eyes off of the menacing sand.

Both of these mistakes led me to be thrown into the ground by a falling pillar of sand, winding me and causing me some pain. I leapt to my feet and launched myself backwards, keeping myself low to the ground. More sand made its way towards me as I caught my breath, and I did the best I could to block it. Some, however, wrapped its way around me, and I couldn't break free of it. Once more I was brought to the ground, confined in a seemingly unbreakable sand prison. I needed to get out of this- and I had a plan.

"Odama Kaen!" I shouted out, and a fireball enveloped me, nearly covering the entire rooftop. Team Asuma shielded their eyes from the sunlight-like glare and heat of my attack whilst sand moved to surround the Kazekage. The sand that had entrapped me just recently now turned into glass, shattering against the hard surface of the rooftop.

"Clever," Gaara said as the sand he'd salvaged broke away from the barrier he'd created for himself. "You knew that intense heat could turn sand into glass, and used that to your advantage."

"Guess I'm just resourceful," I suggested as the flames licked the air from the ground, slowly dying out in the weak sandstorm conditions.

"As am I," the Kazekage informed me. "This village is surrounded by desert. My power over sand has nearly no limit here. Turn as much of it as you want into glass, it will do you no good."

_Back to the drawing board, _I thought as I cursed under my breath.

"Alright," he said, his sand forming into multiple little shuriken shapes. "Show me how you deal with this! Sand shuriken!"

The sand came towards me in a horizontal shower, and I leapt away to avoid it, only to find myself being followed by it. I turned and dashed towards the Kazekage, preparing a Chidori. I couldn't stay of the defensive forever, now could I?

"Bad move," he whispered as a wall of sand entrapped my hand. "You've made yourself quite vulnerable."

"That's what you think!" I responded, and his eyes widened. My shadow clone disappeared in a puff of smoke, and his sand shuriken merged with the sand wall. The real me closed in on him from behind.

"Nijuu Chidori!" I shouted out, ramming both hands into his back simultaneously before his impenetrable defense could stop me. The electricity coursed through him before knocking him forward a few feet, driving him into the railing and making him wince.

Then he started laughing.

"Good, good," he said, bracing his palms on the rail and pushing himself up. "I'm guessing Naruto taught you the Shadow Clone jutsu?"

"Yes sir," I told him with a smile.

"You learn from your friends," he told me, walking forward towards me from the distance, almost having to shout so that I could hear him. "And your friends learn from you. That is a lesson I learned way too late in life."

"I only learned it recently myself, sir," I told him. "Only recently got a home."

"You and I aren't so different," he told my, his smile never faltering. "We should be friends. We're on a first name basis, right, Raikou?"

"I-I guess, Gaara," I responded nervously. "But you are the Kazekage..."

"And?" he looked at me, still smiling. "Titles are meaningless amongst true friends. When Naruto himself becomes the Hokage, you and he will remain as steadfast companions, I guarantee it."

"Um."

"Oh, sorry," he said with a chuckle. "I didn't mean to make it sound like that."

"Sound like what?"

"Forget about it," he said dismissively, waving his hand through the air. "We're in the middle of something, are we not?"

"Yeah," I said, more confident now. "Let's do it!"

_I get it now, _I thought to myself as we leapt towards each other. _This is why Granny sent me out here. She wanted me to form a bond with the Kazekage._

_Well, it worked, _I smiled as we clashed in the air.

3-3-3-3-3

The maroon-cloaked shinobi crouched on the wall of the Kazekage's mansion, her azurite hair flowing down to her waist as her emerald eyes opened slowly. She'd extracted a good amount of information in the Kazekage's absence from his quarters, and it was now time to set the plan in motion.

She bit into her thumb without remorse, not even wincing as she drove it into the side of the building, a seal forming around it.

"Summoning," she whispered.

3-3-3-3-3

We were sparring for a little longer when a horrible sound reached my eardrums, making me fall to the ground in pain, Gaara likewise.

"Agh!" Ino cried out. "What the heck?!"

"Rgh..." Shikamaru groaned out, covering his ears. "What is this?!"

Suddenly, the sound dulled down to a faint hum as darkness shrouded over us in the broad daylight. I looked up to see an enormous body hovering over me.

"This is my expansion jutsu!" I heard Choji's voice roar from somewhere above me. "I can block out the sound for a little while!"

"Show yourself!" The Kazekage demanded, his passive nature immediately becoming aggressive.

"Impressive use of your technique," a female voice came from somewhere. "But nothing is perfect."

Suddenly, an enormously long white snake crept under Choji's body, it's green eyes shining before it crawled in and bit into Gaara's stomach. He gasped before falling to the ground as the snake slithered its way around him.

"What did you do to him?!" I shouted out as Choji shrunk to his normal size, revealing a female shinobi sporting a dark red cloak. She had no headband, I observed.

"I am Mamushi of the Doku clan," she told me, her sharp green eyes snakelike in appearance. "And I've done nothing too major to your new friend, Raikou."

"My name," I glared at her. "How do you know it?!"

"There is very little I do not know of you," she told me with an unnerving smile. "I've known you your entire life, after all."

"You!" I shouted out with realization. "You work for Orochimaru, don't you?!"

"Clever boy," she hummed as Gaara slowly rose to his feet, the snake having disappeared.

"Gaara," I whispered, running to his side. "Are you oka-"

"Whoa!" I barely got out of his way fast enough as a sand spike formed beside him, nearly impaling me. "What was that for?!"

"Careful, Raikou!" Shikamaru warned me, and I froze when I looked into my new friend's eyes. His light green eyes had become jagged and darker, his mouth slacking open slowly.

"My pet already has him," the woman purred as her eyes flashed ever brighter. "Little Niburu can infest any person's body I desire, taking direct orders from me to control said person. In other words, the Kazekage is under my control."

"Gaara..." I whispered, staring into his cold, lifeless green eyes. He rose a hand slowly, giving me hope- and Choji rammed me from the side, knocking me out of the way of a sand pillar of imposing size as it crashed down where I'd only just been standing.

"Get it together!" Choji ordered me. "We're in serious danger here!"

"But that's Gaara!" I retorted. "Even if he is being controlled by her, he's my friend!"

"What choice do we have?!" Asuma asked in a roar as he lunged towards him, blades of chakra clashing in midair with tendrils of lightning-fast sand.

"I-!"

"Sorry, Rai, but we need to do this!" Shikamaru told me, taking Gaara from the side, his shadow moving in intricate patterns before leaping from the ground and attempting to stab at him.

"I know there's another way to do this!" I said, leaping between Shikamaru and Asuma with Gaara to my back, blocking them each with Nijuu Chidori.

"Hee hee hee!" Mamushi laughed in a half girlish, half maniacal fashion. "That's right, children! Fight amongst each other and rip yourselves apart!"

Sand suddenly washed over us on all sides, forming a dome on all sides, which we each promptly broke out of, showering our surroundings with discarded sand.

"You just met the guy!" Shikamaru reminded me as we leapt away from the sand that chased us without break. "How bad could it be for you to knock him out once?"

"Do you think the village would be happy with us if we took him out?" Ino asked, staying close to me. "This is their leader, after all."

"I can't condone killing somebody who's being forced to fight against us," I pressed on as the other four dodged the attacks along with me.

"What do you suggest we do, then?!" Shikamaru asked, clearly annoyed. I thought for a second before my eyes lit up.

"Follow me," I whispered before shouting out "I guess we'll have to retreat!"

We all leapt off the building, and I had to make a mental note of the fact that Asuma sensei had willingly followed. I whispered to them my plan, standing on the side of the Hokage's mansion.

"I have to hand it to you," Asuma sensei grunted with a small smirk. "It's pretty risky, but it just might work!"

"You really know how to take advantage of a team's strength," Ino said admiringly, still staring at me. Her eyes almost hypnotized me before Choji brought us back to the real world.

"If we're going to do this, we better do it now!"

I nodded, holding a hand out with three fingers up. Then two. One. I made my hand into a fist, with no more fingers held up, and Team Asuma rushed to the top of the building while I simply stood there.

Lightning veined the sky as I focused on the new jutsu I'd developed.

3-3-3-3-3

"Spiky human boulder!" Choji rolled his way straight through the sturdy sand before a wall of far more resistant sand rose in front of the possessed Gaara, protecting him. Choji grinded against him, chipping away at the sand slowly, but Gaara only stepped back and applied more. His entire focus was on the Akimichi clan chunin.

Just as the team had planned.

"Silly little rats," Mamushi cackled. "Running away and sending only one of you back to fight. I have the Kazekage. There's nothing you can do to defeat me!"

Gaara's arm raised, and the sand he had formed an enormous nail shape right above Choji's rolling body.

"And then there was four," Mamushi cackled once more as the nail crashed down towards the boy. Just as it was about to skewer him, however, it stopped.

"What-?" Mamushi asked the open air before seeing that Gaara had stopped moving. His shadow had moved slightly as well. Being a well trained ninja, she scolded herself for not seeing this before. She trailed the shadow of her plaything with her eyes.

"You!" she shouted out in surprise. Shikamaru stood there in a crouched position, his shadow having stretched to connect with Gaara's.

"Now, Shikamaru!" a more mature voice called out, making her whip her head to see Asuma running towards Gaara as well. The shadow's of the two adolescent's separated, and Asuma used a rapid combination of chakra blade strikes to paralyze Gaara, knocking him to the ground for the time being. The only places that had been struck were pressure points- not one scratch on Gaara.

And while Mamushi was focused on her mind-slave, she didn't notice Ino sneaking up behind her and hitting her with her Mind Body Switch jutsu.

"Yes!" Ino cried out victoriously in Mamushi's body. "I've got her!"

"It's all you, Rai!" Choji shouted out, and Raikou jumped to the roof of the building.

"Lightning style-" Mamushi saw through her own eyes the boy who she'd been told to watch no matter the circumstances.

Well, that didn't work out too well, did it?

"Gurando Rakurai!" he shouted out, shoving his hand deep into Mamushi's stomach, making Ino wince in her body before leaving abruptly.

"What-?" Mamushi barely had time to ask before looking down at her ripped-into shirt and seeing a seal of some kind, the kanji for lightning.

Then everything flashed white before searing pain stole her consciousness.

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The thunderbolt struck the roof of Gaara's mansion just as we leapt off of it, Gaara in hand. Well, it looked to be the roof; really it had only hit that freaky snake woman.

"Lightning in a nearly cloudless village," Ino whispered in awe as she stared at the paralyzed woman, her body spasming occasionally. "How'd you do it?"

"Well," I grinned sheepishly. "You guys know how lightning is made, with the water droplets and ice crystals making static inside of the clouds, right?"

"Well, now I do," Choji said just as sheepishly as the others nodded slowly.

"Well, you know I'm good at lightning style jutsu, like my variations of Chidori," I went on. "I mixed my chakra in with the clouds to let it fuse with the real static to make a bigger thunderbolt. Then I just had to designate it's placement by putting my seal on her body. My chakra carried the lightning down and struck her when I commanded it to, and... Well, now we have an extra-crispy enemy ninja. That's my Gurando Rakurai (Grand Thunderbolt.)"

"I'm impressed," Asuma said after a high-pitched whistle. "You really took care of that well."

"We all played a MAJOR part," I reminded him. "None of us would have succeeded without the help of the others."

"And that's why they call it a team," Shikamaru said with a small smirk.

"You haven't made one comment on how much of a drag this mission has been," Choji noted. "Only that we didn't understand Raikou's placement in our team."

"Could it be that you enjoy Raikou's company?" Ino asked coyly, grinning widely at Shikamaru.

"Better than being alone with you two," Shikamaru muttered as Asuma laughed out loud.

"I hope Gaara wakes up soon," I whispered nervously as I watched Ino and Choji attempt to strangle their teammate once more.

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"Finally, we're here," Ino muttered as we sat side by side on a bench next to the Amaguriama dumpling stand.

"This place is nice," I commented as I bit into my dumpling. It was especially sweet after a long, exhausting mission like that one.

"Man, Gaara's siblings were ready to kill Asuma sensei," Ino laughed at the memory of her teacher's face when Temari and Kankuro had arrived.

"I'm glad they bought the explanation," I told her. "But they bought the truth, so..."

"Yeah," Ino responded. She was leaning ever closer to me. I sweatdropped briefly before murmuring,

"And that crazy woman got taken by the Suna ANBU, so we won't be seeing her again."

"Mmhm..." she inched even closer as my heart beat in my chest audibly. Was she going to-?

I closed my eyes and chose to accept it when-

"HEY! RAIKOU!" Naruto's obnoxious voice knocked us both out of our brief reverie's as he charged towards us. "You owe me a match, Rai!"

I looked at Ino as she sighed with disappointment. "Well, go on," she told me, nudging me off the bench.

"Great! I'm gonna win, Rai!"

"Yeah right, Uzumaki!"

I could have sword I heard Ino laugh as we took off for the training field.

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**Review!**


	6. Chapter 6

LightningSword5: Oh, man, I can't believe I made that mistake... "sword" instead Of "sworn..." I could have "sword" I checked the last chapter for mistakes, and the keyboard is mightier than the "sworn." So, here's the next chapter! Merry Christmas! Or happy Hanukah! ... Or Kwanza! Whatever it was for you, I hope was happy!

The Lightning Shinobi Chapter 6

"Son!" my father's voice carried its way over to me from the door, making my ears perk up slightly.

"Hai, father?"

"How did your mission with Asuma go?" he asked me, walking into the house and ruffling my hair.

3-3-3-3-3

"_No, Temari, you don't underst-"_

"_Can it, you sadistic freak!"_

"_AGGGGGGH!"_

3-3-3-3-3

"... Relatively well," I responded with a smile. "Nothing we couldn't handle."

"So?"

"... So what?" I asked him in confusion.

"What all happened? Tell me how it panned out."

"Oh," I said, nodding with comprehension. "Well, turns out the letter that was for the Kazekage was a former challenge from the Hokage."

"Really?" my father asked, cocking his visible eyebrow. "I never pictured her the type to go out just for more work..."

"That's the thing, though," I went on. "She didn't want to challenge the Kazekage as herself. She wanted to challenge him as ME."

"What?!"

"Yeah, that's what I said," I chuckled under my breath. "But anyways, Gaara and I started sparring, and he's whaling on me until I use a shadow clone to get behind him and throw him into the railing at the top of his tower."

"You held your own, eh?"

"Sure did," I responded with another grin, sure I looked pretty cheeky. "So, after that, we're ambushed by this lady named Mamushi."

"... Mamushi."

"Yeah," I said, an eyebrow raised. "You know her? She worked for Orochimaru."

"... Good lord," he whispered, and then something else that I won't repeat. "What'd she do?"

"Um, well," I stuttered, unnerved by my father's reaction. "She summoned this snake that took over Gaara's body, and then we just... kind of... beat her."

Silence.

"Son," he told me sternly, looking me in the eyes with an intensity that had me sweating. "If you ever see that woman again, don't try to fight her. You don't know what could happen."

"But-"

"But what?!" he cut me off before I could even begin to tell him what happened.

"T-The Sand ANBU have her," I told him, looking down at the ground. "We shouldn't be seeing her anymore."

"The ANBU have her?" he asked me, and I nodded. He sighed with some minor degree of relief, holding his head with one hand.

"Look," he murmured calmly. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"I know," I whispered, my eyes never leaving the floor. "You're just worried about me, right?"

"Yeah," he agreed, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You're a strong kid, jonin-level strong, but you're still a kid. And that woman could probably turn a small army of ninja into road kill if she wanted to."

"But she was so easy," I muttered.

"Just- just run the next time you see her, okay, Rai?" he demanded of me, taking his hand off of my shoulder. "I don't want to have to bury you."

"Yeah," I whispered. "All right."

"Promise me."

"I promise."

"Good," he put his hand back to his head, suddenly back to his relaxed self. "Man, I'm beat. Think I'll turn it in for tonight."

"Yeah," I murmured. "See you tomorrow."

3-3-3-3-3

_The Tobenai clan shared a close relationship with dragons, knowing that they were divine creatures and respecting them duly, however never worshipping them. They held fast to their belief in only one God, and that the dragons were merely their God's creation._

_When the clan disappeared, so did the dragons, onto the peak of a mountain that no mortal can reach, here they rest in solitude._

_There is at least one dragon for every human being on Earth, making them one of the most thriving species. Nobody knows what they feed on, nobody's ever seen them personally. We only know this now because we have read it in scrolls left by those of the Tobenai clan._

_Where is the mountain of the dragons? That is what I am investigating now, for if I can find the dragons' mountain, I can find the Tobenai clan's secrets. _

3-3-3-3-3

When I woke up, I realized that this was going to be another missionless day. Meaning that Granny was probably drop some mission on my face-literally- again.

_Maybe it's be best if I just stayed inside all day, _I thought with a yawn as my blue nightcap fell over my eyes. _Yeah, a little shuteye could do a ninja well._

Then, of course, my ambitions were shattered.

"I'm leaving for my mission with Naruto," my father called up to me. "You and Sakura have been assigned as training partners today!"

"Frig," I swore under my breath, pulling my pillow up on top of my head. "I don't wanna do this..."

"Rai!" he called up again, making me groan. "Are you awake? Come on down here, wave good bye or something!"

"Shut up," I hissed so quiet not even he could hear as he bounded up the steps. I wrapped myself in the blanket like a cocoon in hopes he would get the hint. He didn't.

"Up and at 'em, Raikou," me chuckled, grabbing the blanket on my futon and tugging at it lightly. "Don't make me get serious here."

"Leave me alone," I muttered. "I'm tired."

He sighed, and when I heard footsteps going away from my bed I thought I was off the hook. Then, so sudden that I hardly knew what was happening, the blanket was gone and I was spinning rapidly in the air, unwound and uncovered. I swear I made an "Eep!" sound, but I couldn't be sure.

"Don't you dare shirk work," he told me, glaring steadily down at me with his one visible eye as I landed with a crash on the cold floor. "Get up and get your day started."

"Alright, alright," I groaned, picking myself up off the frigid wood and rising to my feet. Man, my shoulder ached. I windmilled my arm, trying to stretch it out to no avail as I headed over to my closet and found... only one jumpsuit. The one Id' been wearing during my fight with Naruto.

"Dad!" I called after him. "I need more clothes!"

"You insist on wearing that blue and black jumpsuit of yours," he called up from the kitchen. "You only have a couple, and you told me you'd wash the one you were wearing yesterday! Did you?"

"Um." He sighed at my response.

"Well, then, go shirtless," he told me, and I could just SEE his hand on his forehead as he groaned. "Get your laundry done and you can wear a shirt tomorrow."

"Fine," I grumbled, yanking off my pajama pants and pulling on the ripped jumpsuit's pair.

"Shikamaru rubbed off on you really quick," my father told me as I walked down the stairs, hands in my pockets. "You've gotten lazy. Come on, show a more positive attitude. Make Sakura think you enjoy her company."

"I do," I told him with a smile, and from the way he looked at me I knew my eyes had lightened up. "She's... fun."

"'Fun?'" he asked me. "That's all?"

"I don't know," I told him, sighing once more as I leaned against the wall. "She's pretty. She acts mean sometimes, but I can tell she doesn't mean anything by it. She's strong enough to protect herself and others. ... Is that what you're looking for?"

"N-Not exactly," he told me, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I actually meant..."

"Oh," I said, comprehending. "Well, yeah. I like her."

"That's kind of blunt!" he told me, his eye going completely white with surprise as he sweatdropped.

"I didn't mean it like that," I groaned as I walked past him. "I'll see you soon, dad."

"Bye, Raikou."

I headed off in the direction of the training field, the air feeling cold on my exposed flesh.

"Eh... Rai?" Naruto's voice came to my ears from my left side when I was hardly five steps away from the door. "Where's your shirt?"

"You ruined it, remember?" I asked him, smirking slightly.

"Oh yeah..." he said, looking up. "I did, didn't I?"

"You honestly forgot?" I asked him, looking at the naïve blond with surprise as he shook his head.

"Well, I remember a couple of big parts," he responded, looking at me with an awkward grin.

"Right," I muttered. "Geez, just when I forgot about that whole curse mark business..."

"Well, sorry," he told me, extending the syllables in the last word. "It's not like I'm trying to bring things like that up, dattebayo."

"Yeah, well," I muttered, turning to leave. "You seen Sakura?"

"She was on her way here, but she stopped at the Yamanaka's flower shop," he responded.

"Thanks, Uzumaki," I thanked him, turning to leave.

"... You feeling alright?" he asked unevenly from behind me, making me turn t face him.

"Huh?"

"Well, you're acting kind of... what's the word, dattebayo..." he mused, holding a hand on his chin.

"Well, I guess it's just that my shoulder's acting up," I told him, giving him a genuine smile. "No big deal, sorry."

"Y-Your shoulder?" he asked me, blanching. "I-I gotta go meet up with Kakashi sensei!" He dashed into the house as the door closed behind him.

_What the heck was that about? Ah. Whatever._

I turned back around, making my way through the empty streets to Yamanaka. I heard two adolescent female voices before I even got into the little shop.

"And then he used this one jutsu that made a huge lightning bolt in the middle of a freaking cloudless desert!"

"Wow, how'd he manage that?" I recognized the voices of Ino and Sakua, who were all of a sudden all buddy-buddy now instead of at each other's throats.

"He explained it to me, but I didn't really get it," Ino said sheepishly. "But you should've seen him! He was just-just amazing!"

"Well, thanks," I said as I walked through the open doorway, grinning with gratitude. "That's a nice thing to say."

"Ehhhhhhh?!" both girls shouted out before their hands shot up to their noses, blocking a violent flow of blood.

"How long h-have you been there, Rai?!" Ino asked me, stuttering.

"I just got here," I told her, hands raised. "What's the matter with you two? You hurt yourselves or something?"

"N-No, Rai, you idiot," Sakura stuttered as well, taking her hand from her nose and glaring at me. "Where's your shirt?!"

"In the laundry," I responded nonchalantly. "It got dirty yesterday, all sandy and bloody, you know. And these are the only other clothes I have."

"Uh-huh," Sakura gulped, her eyes scanning me up and down.

"S-So what are you up to, Raikou?" Ino asked me, clearly flustered, as she tried to lean her head on her hand using the counter for support and fell to the floor unceremoniously.

"Sakura and I are supposed to do some obligatory training together today," I told her, sweatdropping. "Naruto told me that Sakura was here, so I figured I'd just have to meet her."

"Well, that was sweet," Sakura told me, chuckling nervously. "Rai, please put a shirt on. I'm feeling dizzy."

"Dizzy?" I asked her, shaking my head. "I'm sure you'll get better with ti- ow."

"Ti- ow?" Ino repeated with confusion.

"Ugh," I groaned. "It's my stupid shoulder. It's been hurting all morning."

"Your shoulder?!" the girls chorused, Sakura leaping behind the counter, distancing herself from me.

"Look, is there some sort of problem?" I asked, admittedly annoyed now. "That's the second time today someone's reacted like that."

"This one?" Sakura asked me, tentatively reaching out and tapping the top of my right shoulder, making me hiss.

"Yeah," I forced out, gripping the spot where her hand had just been. "Please don't do that again."

"Raikou, I think that..." Ino hesitated before continuing. "I think that your curse mark is what's acting up, not your shoulder."

"But..." I thought back to when I'd been trapped in my father's genjutsu world, to the searing pain that had ensued from it. "My dad sealed it, didn't he?"

"It might not be working," Sakura told me, looking me square in the eye without blinking. "I think you need to see Kakashi sensei about this."

And then I remembered everything going black.

3-3-3-3-3

"_That was taken care of the moment he touched me," Mamushi told the darkness in response. "He should weaken now, slowly, until he's under your wing, master."_

_Silence as the darkness seemed to shift around._

"_Oh, yes," she purred. The virus is on his friends, too. It'll travel throughout the entire village and enhance the effects of the curse mark whenever he's near somebody that's been infested. I promise you, he will be yours sooner or later._

3-3-3-3-3

The girls had carried Raikou, in a hurried panic, to Kakashi. They were used to their friend fainting, but the curse mark was a force to be reckoned with, and they knew it. He wasn't any heavier than when he'd entered the village, cadaverously malnourished, Sakura had noted. He was still crazy thin, dangerously thin. Heck, she could practically see his ribs just from looking at him. She wondered how he lived like that, not realizing how alike her dieting habits were to his style of eating.

Upon their arrival at Kakashi's home, they just barely caught him as he walked out the door with Naruto, on their way to go on a mission that Sakura didn't understand why she hadn't been told to come on.

The two girls explained the situation, and Kakashi's laid-back attitude immediately became serious. They hightailed him over to the Hokage to tell her what happened and have him looked out. Of course, she wasn't happy to see him like this, and began to examine him herself in a private room. She eventually emerged to a sort of waiting room that she kept right outside of said room, looking to the foursome of ninja with a grim frown on her brow.

"I don't understand it," she told them, leaning back against the door after closing it. "The curse mark isn't transforming him or anything like that, but it IS causing him pain. He seemed to become more restless the nearer I got to him."

"So he's awake?" Kakashi asked her calmly, not letting his worry flow to his face as freely as his comrades were.

"No," Tsunade said with a sigh. "The way his body's moving, it looks to me like he's having an unpleasant dream, but I can't be certain."

"He faints in a routinely sort of way," Sakura told her teacher dutifully, her voice thick with dignity that masked her emotions. "Every day, at least once a day, he just falls on the ground, unconscious."

"Hm," Tsunade grunted, her frown becoming much more prominent as she walked stiffly to another room, beckoning the others to follow her.

"This could be something," she murmured, rifling through a group of shelves stacked high with scrolls. "But it could just as easily be nothing."

"You've seen something like this?" Kakashi asked her, his eyebrow rising slightly.

"Not personally," she mused as she pulled a particularly non-musty scroll from its wooden quarters. "But a couple of weeks ago, we had a patient with something we didn't immediately know the cure for. We found it in this scroll," she gestured to the one she'd been reading. "A scroll of illnesses. I saw something else along the way as well. It wasn't so much an illness as a virus."

"So we could have it as well?" Ino asked the Hokage with fear in her eyes.

"No, Ino," she went on. "It was a virus that was specific to one clan. The... I'm not sure which one. But it hadn't been seen since said clan disappeared years ago."

"But he's my son," Kakashi told her, his eyebrows narrowing. "He couldn't be part of that clan. Unless..."

"Unless what, Kakashi?" the Hokage asked him, a glint of interest and suspicion in her eyes.

"Nothing," he muttered. "Just some personal business. It has nothing to do with it."

3-3-3-3-3

I know it's nothing, but it's what I have. And I'm going to sleep now.


	7. Chapter 7

LightningSword5: I'm back! Sorry it took so long. Here's the next chappie!

The Lightning Shinobi chapter 7

"CHEEEYAA!" she fell from the sky, fist blazing blue, and the ground she punched in front of me cracked open. A small part the earth caved downwards, and I used the inward fracturing to leap upwards. Her back was to me now, and I was ready to strike her.

I infused a shuriken with my chakra and launched it towards her with a halfhearted throw. I knew what she'd done.

"Sakura" turned into a log due to her substitution jutsu as I landed on the unmarred land a few feet away. If I wasted time trying to find her through sight alone, she'd get the better of me. My eyelids slid shut as I focused on my surroundings, my senses of smell and hearing revealing every subtle movement that my eyes could not.

_There, _I thought to myself. _That's where she's hiding. So it stands to reason... _

"Nijuu Chidori!" I shouted out as I swept my hand horizontally through the air, deflecting her oncoming punch before driving my other hand into her stomach. She gasped out in pain before she flew over the ground briefly and landed, skidding on her feet.

"You're strong, Rai," Sakura told me, forcing a grin as she coughed, electricity sparkling on her skin.

"And you're tough, Sakura," I returned the sentiment. "But you're not pressing me so much as I would've hoped."

"Really now?" she asked me before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"A shadow clone?!" I asked in surprise.

"Dang straight!" I turned ti see her holding a boulder five times her size above her head, leaning back slightly.

No way.

"CHEEEYAA!" she shouted powerfully, chucking the small mountain at me with a strength I'd never once witnessed.

"Chidori Jinrai!" I shouted panickedly, forcing my hand into the rock. It split into countless pieces, leaving my hand hurting like heck and raising a dust cloud that blocked my vision. In my haste, I hadn't thought of an effective countermeasure. I cursed myself before leaping out of the dust cloud and looking downwards.

Her approaching form was even closer than I'd thought it would be, leaving me open and unprepared.

Or so she thought.

I smirked, grabbing hold of each of her arms and throwing her backwards over my head, taking her completely by surprise and leaving her vulnerable. Meanwhile, I compressed the necessary chakra for a Chidori for my new experimental jutsu. I'd never tried it before, and training was the best time, was it not?

I landed once more, lining myself up vertically with her falling form as she fell ever closer to me. She saw where her path was leading her and cocked her flaming hand back above her head. I bent down as close to the ground as I could, focusing my chakra into my hand as intensely as I could.

"Chidori..." I murmured before bringing my hand up when she was just above it. "Chājibīmu!"

And of course something went wrong...

My chakra burst out of my hand in an open explosion, sending her flying upward and me careening into the ground painfully.

"Owwww..." I groaned on the ground as Sakura ran to my side, having landed flawlessly.

"Raikou, are you alright?!" she asked me with fear and concern.

"Peachy," I responded with a lopsided grin. "After a little rest, at least." I got the feeling that the hand I'd used for the attack was asleep, little stings running up from my wrist to my fingertips, and I shook it out.

"Honestly," she groaned. "Imagine if you had done that in a serious battle! You'd be part of the sand by now!"

"I guess there's a reason we leave making jutsu to the professionals," I muttered, pushing myself to my feet. "I just can't keep my chakra in a straight line after it leaves my hand."

"That's what you were trying to do?" she asked me. "Hm... I think I could help you with that."

"Really?" I asked dubiously. "How?"

"Look at this," she ordered, strolling a couple yards away to another boulder, slightly larger than the one she'd launched before. She lifted it effortlessly above her head, hands glowing a faint blue.

"See, with my chakra in my hands like this, it's easy to just throw the Sphere of Graves," she told me, once again tossing it a few feet away. It rolled for a couple of seconds before promptly halting.

"Yeah... so?" I asked her. I didn't understand how she was so strong, and I respected her heavily for it, but what was the point of just showing that to me?

"I can change it up," she told me, walking over to the oversized rock once more. "Let's say I lift it over my head like this..." she did so with a grunt. "And then..." she brought her arms down quickly, the rock still attached at her hands before it suddenly rocketed forward, blasting off into the sky almost faster than my naked eye could watch.

"W-Whoa!" I gasped, impressed. "How'd you do that?!"

"I expended my chakra into the boulder to make it launch off my hands," she told me, pulling her gloves down and making their elastic snap against her skin. "Putting it in just the right areas boosted ol' Rocky away. It's chakra control."

"I think you probably really could help me," I said with a grin. "If you want to."

"Sure," she chirped, turning away from me. "But I need to go take care of a little errand first. Wait for me here, alright?"

I nodded as she sauntered off, her hands behind her head.

Then I remember everything going black.

3-3-3-3-3

"_Oh no!" he cried out, looking at me with fright. "Uh, little boy, you didn't see me, all right?"_

"_I can see you right now," I told him, giving him a strange look. He wore the same cloak as the orange-haired ma, but his face was covered by a swirly orange and black mask, black hair coming out of the top._

"_Gah!" he shouted, looking at me. "Okay, please don't tell anybody, alright? I'm not doing anything!"_

"_You look like you're doing something to me," I commented drily. "Something... out of the ordinary."_

"_Now, Tobi!" a voice called down from the air. I leapt up just in time to avoid-_

3-3-3-3-3

"And he's holding up fine?" he asked her, flipping the page in his book.

"Perfect, Kakashi sensei," Sakura responded. "No debilitating pains, no gruff attitude, no anything. It's like he was never sick."

"Good, good," Kakashi said with a smile. "Now, why don't I join you and Rai for some training, hm?"

"Sounds great, but ah..." Sakura looked at him square in the eye. "Aren't you supposed to be on a mission with Naruto?"

"... Good work, Sakura," Kakashi told her, smiling with one eye closed.

"So I'm guessing you're a shadow clone, then?" Sakura asked him slyly.

"Yup."

"Alright. Go ahead and disappear now, then."

The Kakashi clone nodded before doing just that. Sakura sighed as she turned to return to the training field, shaking her head at her teacher's simple test.

Raikou had only hours ago been continuously comatose. He'd launched into convulsions when the Hokage attempted to touch his cursed shoulder. Sakura would never forget his face in that moment. He'd been paler than the moon, his eyes bloodshot and rolling randomly. She feared for his life.

Who would've guessed that all it took to get him back to normal was putting a shirt on him?

It was unlike anything she'd ever studied, and only barely related to ONE thing the Hokage recognized. Just what had Orochimaru done to Raikou in his few, tortured years of captivity? And why was it only just now popping up?

"Ah, darn it," Sakura muttered as she arrived back at the training field to see Raikou, out cold. "I really hope this is just one of his routine drops off reality."

"Don furry, vit iff," he grumbled into the ground.

"What?"

"Don't worry, it is," he repeated, crawling to his feet. "That's gotten to be a real inconvenience. Forget the Chājibīmu, what if THAT happens in the middle of a fight?"

"That's twice so far today," she pointed out. "They're getting closer together. We might want to find a cure soon."

"There is no cure, right?" he asked her for confirmation. "That's what Granny said."

She was silent.

"But that's why I've got friends like you, right?" Raikou looked to her with a smile. "You've got my back, right?"

"Well, yeah," she coughed, blushing at the ground. "I-"

Raikou's mind went blank as he saw it.

"What?" I whispered, staring at her without comprehension.

"I-I said that I-"

Sakura's words didn't reach his ears as he stared at the figure behind her. A figure he hadn't seen in years. A figure he'd presumed dead.

His mother. She gave him a warm smile, beckoning for him before turning to leave.

"Mom!" Raikou dashed past Sakura as rapidly as he could, desperately pursuing the fleeting silhouette of his mother.

"Mom?!" Sakura turned to watch him go before noticing the figure he was chasing. "Rai, wait up!"


End file.
